a bittersweet beginning
by SunsetKitsune
Summary: This story is a prequel to a bittersweet tale by Fallenkunoichi. This story revolves around Saya Kazami, who is a 16 year old chunin in a bittersweet tale. This story will start out when Saya is 5 years old and will cover stories that lead up to her death in her point of view or her brother's point of view. Please enjoy and comment.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1: A new Jinchuriki:**_

_**Summary:**_ _**This story is a prequel to a bittersweet tale by Fallenkunoichi. This story revolves around Saya Kazami, who is a 16 year old chunin in a bittersweet tale. This story will start out when Saya is 5 years old and will cover stories that lead up to her death in her point of view or her brother's point of view. Please enjoy and comment.**_

It was a warm day for the hidden leaf village. Outside, children ran around laughing and playing, while their mothers talked with each other and watched over them. But, there was one child who's troubles were just about to begin. That child's name is Saya Kazami. Saya is a 5 year old girl and she has an older brother named Kotaro Kazami, who is 5 years older than she is. Saya's father's name is Hiro Kazami and he's the most trusted ninja in the village. Saya's mother's name is Kanna Kazami and she has a secret that only her husband, her son, Lord hokage, and Lady hokage know about. Kanna has to hide the fact that she is the hostess to the two-tailed beast. Only a few trusted shinobi know about it as well. But, the two-tails is slowly draining away Kanna's chakra. Soon enough it will kill her. Saya's family and the hokage had no choice, but to use Saya as the next Jinchuriki. After all, Saya has two rare powers that have been lost to time for hundreds of years. If anyone knew about her powers, they would try to get it for themselves.

One warm afternoon, Saya's parents were going to meet with Lord and Lady hokage and they had to take Saya and Kotaro with them. Both Kotaro and Saya were outside playing hide and seek. Kotaro had black spikey hair with the leaf headband on his forehead. His eyes looked like they were jet black. He wore a camo colored shirt and black pants with black sandals. Kotaro wondered around the yard looking for his little sister, who was hidden high up in a tree, trying not to laugh to loud where he'll hear her. Saya had short, black and red hair and midnight purple eyes. She wore a black long sleeve shirt that was loose at her wrists. The long sleeve covered up a cresent moon tattoo that she was born with on both of her shoulders. She also wore black shorts with black flat shoes as well. Saya sat on a branch near the top of a tree in her family's backyard. She kicked her feet as she watched her brother look in a bush for her. Kotaro stood up and scratched the back of his head and looked around the yard again. As Kotaro looked around, Hiro and Kanna came outside and saw Kotaro looking through a bush again.

"Kotaro, what on earth are you doing?" Hiro asked with a small laugh as he saw that Kotaro had a couple leaves in his hair. Kotaro looked up at his parents and smiled.

"I was trying to find Saya. We're playing hide and seek. She's hidden herself pretty well. I haven't been able to find her yet." Kotaro said as Kanna looked up into the tree Saya was hidden in. She gave a small laugh when Saya silently waved down to her.

"Saya, come down from there. We need to leave. We're going to meet with Lord and Lady hokage. So we can't be late." Kanna called up to her and Saya nodded.

"Okay, Mama. I'll be right down!" Saya called back in a cute voice. As soon as Saya called down, Kotaro looked up at her and crossed his arms over his chest.

"That's where you've been hiding? I thought you said that you couldn't climb trees." Kotaro said.

"That was before I entered the ninja academy. Now, catch me!" Saya said as she slide off the tree branch. Kotaro took a step forward and easily caught Saya in his arms.

"Now I know to search the trees for you as well." Kotaro said, putting his sister down. Saya only smiled up at him.

"Alright you two. Hurry and wash up." Hiro said. Kotaro and Saya nodded and ran back into the house to get cleaned up. Hiro and Kanna walked into the house after them.

"Hiro, how are we going to keep the two-tailed beast sealed inside her?" Kanna suddenly asked in a low voice. Hiro thought about it for a moment before getting an idea.

"We can use one of the two-tailed cats that reside in the abandoned village nearby to keep the demon sealed. After all, those cats were created for that purpose. You can go on ahead and meet with the hokage, I'm going to go and find one that's still young just like Saya is." Hiro said quietly.

"Alright, but be careful." Kanna said quietly as Hiro went outside and disappeared. As soon as Hiro disappeared, both Kotaro and Saya came out into the room and stood in front of their mother.

"Mama, where did daddy go?" Saya asked, looking up at her mother with curious and cute eyes. Saya's purple eyes seemed to glow as she looked at her mother.

"Your father had to do something real quick, but he'll be right back. Now, shall we go meet up with the hokage now?" Kanna asked, ruffling Saya's hair.

"Yes! Let's go! Or we'll be late." Saya said cheerfully as she quickly ran outside the front door.

"Be careful now. You don't want to trip." Kanna said as she and Kotaro followed behind Saya. Saya skipped happily all the way to the hokage's office. Once the three of them arrived at the office, Saya became shy and clung to Kotaro as they entered into the room.

"Glad you could make it." Lord hokage said as he got up from his chair and walked to the front of his desk.

"Lord hokage, how are the preparations coming?" Kanna asked.

"They have been completed. A little bit earlier than expected, but do you want to wait until it's dark or do you want to get this done and over with?" Lord hokage asked seriously. Saya looked between her mother and the hokage, curious about what they were talking about. A few moments later, Hiro walked into the room.

"Your just it time, Hiro. The preparations have been completed. I was just asking Kanna if she would rather wait or get this over with." The hokage said. Hiro looked at his wife and gave her a slight nod.

"We'll do it now, to get it over and done with." Hiro said.

"Very well. You can start heading over to the cave now. My wife and I will be there shortly." The hokage said.

"Thank you, lord hokage." Hiro said with a bow. Kanna bowed as well, and so did Kotaro, but Saya had no clue what was going on. Kotaro grabbed Saya's hand and lead her out of the room before their parents. Hiro and Kanna followed behind them. Saya noticed that her parents were whispering something to each other, but she couldn't quite hear what they were saying. After a few more moments, they finally stopped whispering to each other and started walking next to Saya and Kotaro. Then, all of a sudden, Hiro picked Saya up and put her on his shoulders.

"You better hang on tight. I'm going to start running." Hiro said as he started to gain speed until he was a full speed. As soon as Hiro was outside, he started jumping from rooftop to rooftop while Saya held on tight while she laughed. Kanna and Kotaro watched them both with smiles on their faces.

"Kotaro. I have a favor to ask of you." Kanna said suddenly, her smile gone. Kotaro looked up at his mother.

"What is it?" Kotaro asked.

"First of all, when we seal the beast in your sister, I want you to erase that part of her memory, alright?" Kanna asked as they continued walking through the village market streets.

"Of course." Kotaro said with a slight nod.

"Good. Second, if something were to happen to both me and your father, I want you to take care of your sister. When she's a genin, and we are no longer with you, I want you to tell her about the rare powers she has in her tattoos and her eyes. Can you do that?" Kanna asked.

"Of course. I will protect Saya, if you cannot." Kotaro said. After that, they both started running after Hiro and Saya in awkward silence. It didn't take very long for them to catch up with the other two. A few more minutes after that, they finally arrived at a cave just a little ways outside the village homes and markets. Once they got there, they were greeted by a few trusted shinobi.

"Hiro, long time no see. Isn't Saya still a little young for this?" One shinobi asked as he walked up to them as Hiro set Saya back on the ground.

"Shiro. It has been awhile. She is, but we have no other choice. Besides, Naruto was even younger than she is now." Hiro said as they walked into the cave.

"Daddy, who's Naruto?" Saya asked.

"Naruto is someone that you don't know, but he's a very special child." Hiro said. Hiro talked with Shiro for a few more minutes until Lord and Lady Hokage walked into the cave.

"Kanna, shall we get this done and over with?" Lady hokage asked as she approached Kanna and Saya. Kanna looked down at Saya and then back at lady hokage and nodded her head. Lady hokage nodded back at her.

"Alright. I need everyone to wait outside. You can come back inside when we call you." Lady hokage said and everyone nodded. Only lady hokage, Kanna, and Saya stayed behind while everyone quickly left the cave. As soon as everyone left the cave, Kanna knelt down in front of Saya.

"Saya, listen to me. No matter what, you must follow all directions we tell you to, okay?" Kanna asked with seriousness in her eyes. Saya could tell her mother was serious and she was beginning to get a little bit scared, but she nodded anyway.

"Good girl." Kanna said with a warm and yet sad smile. Kanna, then, turned to Lady hokage and nodded towards her and she nodded back. Lady hokage's eyes were filled with pity when she looked at Saya.

"Come here, little one." Lady hokage said in a gentle voice. Saya obediently walked over to Lady hokage and looked up at her with her arms at her side. Lady hokage knelt down in front of Saya and a container of black ink out of her pocket. She carefully unscrewed the lid.

"Close your eyes." Lady hokage said and Saya closed her eyes as lady hokage dipped her finger in the ink and drew a symbol on Saya's forehead. After she finished, Saya opened her eyes again and when she did she saw Lady hokage do some hand signs. Then, Saya couldn't move her body at all and her mind drifted away from what was going on, but somehow she still knew what was happening.

After awhile, once the two-tailed beast was inside of Saya's body, lady hokage took out a piece of cloth and wiped the ink off of Saya's forehead. Before Saya could say anything, Kanna knelt down in front of her and ruffled her hair as lady hokage called her brother inside. Kotaro quickly walked over to Saya and knelt down in front of her as well. Saya saw him do a couple of hand signs and when she looked him straight in the eyes, she suddenly forgot the events that had happened that day. She also felt really dizzy, so Saya's father picked her up and started to carry her home. On the way home, Saya fell asleep in her father's arms.

The next morning, when Saya woke up it was a very bright morning. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised when she found a two-tailed kitten curled up and fast asleep right next to her. When Saya suddenly got up, it woke up the kitten and when it woke up it started meowing, trying to say that it was hungry, but Saya had no clue what to do. So, she quickly picked up the kitten and rushed into the kitchen where everyone else was already eating breakfast. All three of them, looked up from their breakfast when they heard Saya running down the hall with a crying cat.

"Mama! Papa! The cat just started crying! What should I do?" Saya asked loudly in a panic. The others started to giggle.

"Saya, keep your voice down. You don't have to be so loud in the morning. Anyway, the kitten is just hungry. Give her to me and go get ready for class." Kanna said as she got up and took the kitten from Saya.

"Why was it sleeping with me?" Saya asked as she watched her mother give the kitten a piece of cat food at a time.

"This kitten belongs to you now. I found it on the way home and thought that you'd might want it. You do want it don't you?" Hiro asked.

"I do want it. Thank you, papa." Saya said with a smile. Hiro smiled as well.

"What are you going to name her, Saya?" Kotaro asked. Saya thought about it for a moment and then finally decided on a name for her new pet.

"I'm going to call her Kilala!" Saya said. As if to agree with Saya, the kitten mewed a reply.

"I think she likes that name." Kanna said with a small laugh as she continued to feed her.

"Saya, you should go get dressed now. Or you'll be late for class." Kotaro said as he put his plate in the sink and started washing it. Saya nodded and quickly ran out of the room, but before she got very far, Saya truned around and ran over to her mother and grabbed Kilala and ran off towards her room again. After a few minutes, Saya finally came back into the kitchen all dressed and ready to go. She had also put a red ribbon around Kilala's neck and tied a neat bow on the back.

"Papa, can I take Kilala with me to class?" Saya asked with pleading eyes.

"Sure. I guess it won't hurt if you did, but you'd better get going or you will be late. You too, Kotaro." Hiro said. Kotaro nodded as Saya ran to the front door to put her shoes on. Kotaro quickly grabbed an apple and the container of cat food from his mother for Kilala and quickly got his shoes on and ran after Saya, who was a little ways ahead of him. As soon as he caught up to Saya, he took Kilala out of her arms and gave her the apple, which she started munching on as Kotaro fed Kilala a piece of cat food one at a time. Saya threw the apple core away when she finished and took Kilala back from her brother as they approached tha ninja academy. Before they went seperate ways, Kotaro gave Saya the container of cat food and then took off towards class. Saya did as well and when she sat down in her seat, the bell rang. She had gotten to class just in time. Throughout the class, Saya fed Kilala and paid attention to the lectures as well, but most of the time her focus was on Kilala. Since then, Saya has taken really good care of Kilala.

Two months later, Hiro and Kanna were assigned an escort mission with about 6 other jounin.

"Kotaro, Saya. Your mother and I are going on an escort mission, so we don't know when we'll be back." Hiro said as they stood in the doorway all ready to go on the mission.

"Kotaro, take care of your sister and the house. And Saya, you take care of Kilala and help your brother out as well, okay you two?" Kanna asked looking between the two.

"Will do." Kotaro said.

"Okay. I promise to help out big brother!" Saya said cheerfully. Kanna and Hiro smiled at Saya.

"Be careful out there." Kotaro said with a smile as well. His parents nodded and started to walk away.

"Promise you'll come back!" Saya called out to them.

"Don't worry. We promise to come back." Kanna called back to her as they both took off towards the village gate. About 3 days after that, Kotaro and Saya were notified by a shinobi that half of the jounin that had gone on the escort mission were killed, including their mother and father. At the funeral, Saya clung to her brother and tried her hardest not to cry in front of the others around them. Kotaro noticed, and knelt down beside her and hugged her close.

"Saya, it's alright. You don't have to act brave. I'm still here for you." Kotaro whispered to her and with those word, Saya started to cry silently. After crying so much, Saya tired herself out and Kotaro had to carry her back to home. As soon as they got home, Kotaro set Saya down and told her to go to bed. Saya walked to her room and as soon as she got to her door she turned back to her brother.

"Big brother, promise me you won't leave me alone?" Saya asked, her eyes red from crying. Sorrow filled her brother's eyes, but he nodded anyway.

"Don't worry. I swear I will never leave you alone. Will you promise me that you'll stay by my side as well?" Kotaro asked.

"I promise." Saya said as she walked into her room and closed the door gently. Saya was greeted by Kilala as soon as she walked in. When she laid down, Kilala curled up next to her and Saya felt a little relieved and safe with her presence there by her side. After a few moment, Kotaro finally walked to his own room and went to bed, falling asleep within a few minutes. Since then, they both stayed close to each other or told each other where they were heading. They both looked out for each other and took care of the house and Kilala for many years.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2: Starting out as a genin:**_

Six years past after Saya's and Kotaro's parents death. Saya was now 12 years old and had passed the test at the ninja academy. She was now a genin and she was placed in squad 11 with two other girls for teammates. Saya's teammates were Yuki and Mea. As for her brother, Kotaro was now 17 years old. He was a protege and had skipped the rank of chunin and was now a jounin. As the years past, Saya had grown a lot. Even though she was only 12, she looked like a 16 year old girl and was often mistaken as one. Saya now had long, black and red hair and purple eyes like always. Her hair was down and was straight and silky. She wore a black tank top and black pants with black flat shoes. She also had a long sword on her back. Kilala had also grown, but not by much. She only grew about 10 or 11 inches in the past 6 years. But, Kilala also had the power to transform in a vortex of fire into a giant sabertooth-like cat that was big enough to ride. She could also fly as well.

That afternoon, Saya grinned as she sat by Mea and Yuki, her teammates and her best friends. They had all got on the same team and were excited to meet their new sensei. The three genin's excitement slowly turned to annoyance as they continued to wait for their sensei. All the other squads had already met their new sensei and were already gone. Saya's eyes were filled with more annoyance than her teammated as she turned towards Mea. Mea was a short girl with chestnut-brown hair held in a tight bun and doe-like hazel eyes. She was the talkative one in the group, the always cheerful one.

"What's taking our sensei so long?" Saya asked with annoyance, tapping her foot impatiently. Yuki rolled her eyes at Saya before going back to her book, eye twitching whenever Saya groaned and tapped her foot. Yuki was a girl of medium height and aqua colored eyes and dark green hair that was in a high ponytail. In the group, she was the serious one and the one that had more brain than muscle.

"He's probably busy, Saya. Being a Jounin isn't easy!" Yuki sighed.

"I never said it was. He's our sensei now, the number of missiond that he goes on should be lowered! It's not like he can take on missions with us as his students!" Saya snapped.

"Look, there's no need to argue about it. And listen! I think he's finally here." Mea said stepping in before Yuki could reply as the heard the faint sound of footsteps. Mea sent her two friends a grin. The door to the classroom opened and a man with gray hair and silver eyes entered the room. His eyes glanced over the three girls and disappointment filled his eyes. Saya noticed and narrowed her eyes, decideding that instant that she didn't like the man.

"I'm Shiro, your new sensei. Whp are you three? They didn't give me any names... or maybe they did and I wasn't listening." Shiro said energetically, as if not letting his disappointment disrupt him.

"I'm Mea!" She said cheerfully like usual.

"Names Yuki." She said, not as energetic.

"Saya..." The purple eyed girl said calmly, eyes never leaving her sensei. Her distrust was evident and both Mea and Yuki gave her a weird look.

"Those were the names!" Shiro exclaimed as he remembered that the hokage had told him their names.

"Now, my young grasshoppers, we'll have a little survival training tomorrow in the meadows! Meet me there as soon as the sun emerges!" Shiro said cheerfully. It was then, Saya decided that she distrusted and hated Shiro, not trusting the look in his silver eyes.

It was late in the afternoon, when Saya started heading home, Kilala trotting at her feet.

"Hey, Kilala, don't you think Shiro-sensei is a bit strange?" Saya asked her cat and Kilala mewed her agreement and nodded her head as she jumped on Saya's shoulder.

"You sure are a smart cat." Saya said as she got to her front door. As Saya started to head inside, Kotaro saw her and ran to catch up to her.

"Hey, little sis. How'd it go?" Kotaro asked as he followed her inside, closing the door behind him.

"My new sensei is really weird. I don't trust him one bit and neither does Kilala." Saya said as she plopped down on the couch. Kotaro sat down next to her as she stroked Kilala's fur, who was sitting on her lab, curled up in a ball.

"Really? Who's your sensei?" Kotaro asked.

"He says his name is Shiro." Saya said. Kotaro stared at her for a moment and then suddenly started laughing.

"Wh-why are you laughing?" Saya asked shocked.

"I can't believe you got that guy as a sensei. No one can stand him. Everyone thinks he's lost his mind and he calls people younger than him young grasshoppers. Just give him a chance and see where that gets you." Kotaro said.

"Wait. You know who Shiro is?" Saya asked, a little bit confused.

"Yeah. He helped dad a few times before. You probably don't remember it though." Kotaro said.

"Either way, he's still really weird. Tomorrow, he said that we were going to do a little survival mission in the meadows. Do you know what kind of survival mission it will be?" Saya asked.

"No clue. I suggest that you go prepare for tomorrow." Kotaro said as he got up and started walking into the kitchen. Saya also got up from the couch and went upstairs to her bedroom, dragging her sword behind her. She tossed her sword off to the side and flopped onto her bed. Kilala also jumped on her bed and curled up next to her. Saya smiled at her and started to scratch behind her ears, which caused her to purr loudly, which made Saya give a small laugh.

"Alright, I guess I should pack my things for tomorrow. Let see, what will I need?" Saya asked herself. As she thought about all the things she thought she would need, she started to gather them up and laid them out on her bed.

"Kunai knives, throwing stars, and paper bombs. I don't really want to carry a backpack with me. So, I'll just take as many of these as possible and my sword and maybe i'll be fine." Saya said, just as her stomach started to growl.

"I'm hungry now. How about you Kilala?" Saya asked as she picked her cat up and held her in her arms. Kilala mewed at her in agreement and Saya went downstairs into the kitchen. Saya put Kilala on the kitchen table and leaned on the table as she watched her brother cook dinner.

"Saya, you should know by now, Kilala's not allowed on the table." Kotaro said with a sigh, not even turning around.

"When there's food. But, there's no food on the table, yet. Anyway, hurry up. I'm hungry." Saya said as she laid back on the ground. Kotaro only rolled his eyes at her, as he put food on two plates and set them down on the table. Kilala jumped off the table and went towards her bowl and pushed it closer towards the end of the table by Kotaro and Saya and started eating. Kotaro and Saya laughed, both almost choking on their food. After they had finished eating, Saya and Kilala ran back up the stairs to Saya's room and flopped on her bed again.

"Tomorrow is going to be a long day, so we better get some sleep." Saya said as she stroked Kilala's fur. Then Saya realized that Kilala was already fast asleep.

"You are one weird cat." Saya said with a smile as she yawned and closed her eyes, falling into a deep sleep.

The next morning, Saya had overslept and was rushing down the stairs. As she ran towards the front door with Kilala on her shoulder, Kotaro tossed a container of cat food and an Apple at her. Saya easily caught them and ran out the door.

"Damn. I hope I won't be late." Saya said and Kilala mewed at her. When she finally got to the meadow, Mea, Yuki and Shiro were already there waiting for her. Saya stopped in front of them, completely out of breath.

"Just in time, young grasshopper." Shiro said with a smile.

"Don't call me that, unless you want me in a bad mood this morning." Saya said, her eye twitching.

"Alright, that's enough. Anyway, what kind of survival mission will we be doing?" Yuki asked, as she put her hand on Saya's shoulder. As soon as she said that, Shiro smiled and summoned three hungry looking wolves.

"I want you to split up and try to outrun these wolves until lunchtime today. If you can do that, we'll go on real missions." Shiro said his hands on his waists. The three genin looked at him like he was insane. But, the wolves started to approach them and the three genin instantly took off through the meadow. Each wolf went after a genin.

"Damn. Yuki isn't as strong as Mea or me. Kilala, go look after Yuki." Saya said as she ran at full speed through the trees at the edge of the meadow. When Saya looked back, she saw that the wolf was easily catching up with her.

"Damn it!" Saya yelled as she ran a little faster.

"At this rate, the wolf's going to kill me. That's it! I'll kill it before it kills me." Saya said as she look around for a place to lose the wolf before she could attack it, and then she noticed a small lake and she smiled. She ran as fast as she could towards the lake and quickly jumped in, she didn't even need to take a breath, since she is somehow able to breath under water. She waited a minute or two before going to the surface quietly. She looked into the trees and around the lake until she spotted the wolf sniffing around trying to find her. Saya quietly and quickly took out a kunai and a paper bomb and threw it at the wolf. The paper bomb exploded before the wolf could react, throwing it against a tree trunk with a hard thud. After watching the wolf for a few more minutes, Saya finally decided to swim back to the shore. She was now completely soaked, her hair was in tangles again and her bangs hid her right eye. After taking a moment to rest, Saya took off again, heading back the way she came, trying to looking for her friends.

It didn't take very long for Saya to locate Mea and the wolf that ran after her. The wolf was at her heels now, and Saya knew that Mea would easily be caught if she didn't do anything. So, Saya ran forward towards the wolf at full speed, which got it's attention and it started charging towards her. At the last second, Saya drew her sword from off of her back and swung at the wolf. She cut a gash in it's side, which is a deadly blow. Before the wolf finally fell and died, it got back up and used the last of it's strength to bite Saya's right arm, leaving a somewhat deep gash.

"Saya! Are you okay?" Mea asked with a worried look as she ran towards Saya. Saya put her sword away and held her arm, covering up the wound so Mea couldn't see how bad it was.

"I'm fine. It's only a small cut. Come on. We have to find Yuki now." Saya said and Mea nodded running after Saya as she took off in the direction she seen Yuki go. It didn't take them very long to catch up to Yuki, Kilala, and the wolf. Kilala was fighting with the wolf and Yuki was holding her left arm, which was bloody.

"Mea, help Yuki. I'll get the wolf." Saya said and Mea nodded running towards Yuki, helping her to her feet and disappearing into the trees again. Saya took out her sword again, but her right arm was throbbing with pain, she could just barely hold up her sword. But, she managed as she ran towards the wolf, which was distacted by Kilala. Saya silently crept up on the wolf and stabbed it in the back, which caused it's blood to splatter all over her. The wolf yelped and then went quiet and limp. Saya put her sword up again and held her arm again as Kilala came up to her in her transformed form. Kilala gently nudged her arm and stared up at Saya with worry in her eyes.

"Don't worry Kilala. I'll be fine. Come on. We need to get back to the others." Saya said as she climbed on Kilala's back. Kilala flew them both back to the meadow where Yuki, Mea, Shiro, and Kotaro were waiting for them. Kotaro had just finished bandaging Yuki's arm, when he looked up at Saya and saw her cover in blood. He just stared at her in shock, not knowing what to say.

"Most of it is not my blood." Saya said, guessing what he was thinking.

"Most?" Kotaro asked. Saya uncover the bite on her right arm and showed him. Kotaro instantly was at her side and started bandaging her wound.

"You are one violent young grasshopper." Shiro said shaking his head. Saya didn't say anything, she only glared at him. She was getting very annoyed with him. She knew she was almost at her limit, so she pulled away from her brother and started heading home.

"Hold on. Where are you going?" Kotaro asked as he put up the first aid kit.

"Home. I need to get the blood off of me. See you at home." Saya said as she disappeared into the trees. As she walked through the village empty streets towards home, she bumped into a boy, getting a bit of wolf blood on him as well.

"I'm so sorry." Saya said with a slight bow.

"It's alright. I wasn't watching where I was going. But, why are you cover in blood?" The boy said. He was also a genin, Saya noted. He had black hair and black eyes. He wore the headband on his forehead.

"I was training and I had to kill a wolf to save my friends. Actually make that three wolves. Anyway, your welcome to come to my house to wash up." Saya said with a sigh as she got passed him and slowly continued to walk back to her house.

"Thanks. If I go home looking like this, my little brother will be in a panic." The boy said as he followed her back to her house.

"By the way, my name's Itachi." The boy said as Saya lead the way back to her house.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Saya." She said as they both walked into Saya's house. Then, Saya lead Itachi upstairs and showed him the way to the bathroom.

"I don't know what I'm going to do about my shirt." Itachi said as he looked down at his bloody shirt.

"Take your shirt off." Saya said. Itachi tried to protest, but Saya managed to take his shirt off for him.

"I'll wash your shirt for you. It shouldn't take very long. And I don't think my brother's shirts would fit you at all." Saya said as she took Itachi's bloody shirt to the washer down the hall as Itachi finished washing up. Once Itachi finished washing up, Saya went into the bathroom next and took a shower. She put on a dark blue long sleeve shirt and black pants on since her clothes were dirty. Once she was done, she quickly got dressed and then she checked on Itachi's shirt, putting it into the dryer for about 10 minutes. Then, she went downstairs, where Itachi was sitting on the couch with Kilala staring at him with distrust in her red eyes. Saya saw this and sighed.

"Kilala, stop staring at him like that." Saya said as she disappeared into the kitchen. Feeling uncomfortable with Kilala staring at him, Itachi followed her into the kitchen and watched as she got the first aid kit down from above the fridge.

"Do you need any help?" Itachi asked as Saya tried to bandage her wound on her arm.

"Please." Saya said. Itachi walked over to her and quickly began to bandage her arm. As he did that, Itachi's face started to turn red and Saya started to notice as well.

"Your face is all red. Are you feeling well?" Saya asked as she reached out her hand and placed it on Itachi's forehead. Itachi quickly stood up when he was finished.

"I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me." Itachi said. Then, they both heard the front door and Saya's brother's voice.

"Saya, where you at?" Kotaro called from the doorway. Saya got up from the table and quickly put away the first aid kit and then walked into the hallway.

"Right here." Saya said walking into the hallway with Itachi behind her.

"So, who's your friend?" Kotaro asked as he started walking into the living room. Saya and Itachi followed behind.

"Sorry for the intrusion." Itachi said with a slight bow.

"His name is Itachi. I bumped into him on the way home and got wolf blood on him." Saya said as Kotaro sat down on the couch.

"Nice to meet you Itachi. My name is Kotaro Kazami." Kotaro said with a smile.

"Kazami?! You mean this is the Kazami residance?" Itachi asked with surprise.

"Yep!" Saya said cheerfully.

"Saya, did you even tell him your last name?" Kotaro asked, as he noticed the surprise in Itachi's eyes.

"No, I kinda forgot." Saya said, which made Kotaro sigh.

"I can't believe I ran into someone from the Kazami family. I mean, your a protege. You skipped the rank of chunin and your sister is the strongest genin that graduated from the ninja academy." Itachi said quickly.

"So, I really don't see the big deal about being the strongest genin that graduated from the ninja academy. I mean, doesn't it happen all the time?" Saya asked. Kotaro stood up again with a sigh and placed his hand on Saya's head, ruffling her hair.

"I don't think you get it, little sis. Itachi's saying that you are the only one in history so far that has graduated from the ninja academy with strength that surpasses even the hokage himself." Kotaro said. Saya only shrugged.

"I'll go check on your shirt now. Be right back." Saya said, brushing her brother's hand away and running up the stairs. The two boys waited for a few seconds before Saya came running back down the stairs with Itachi's shirt. She handed him his shirt and he quickly put it back on.

"Thank you. I should really be going now. I'll see you later." Itachi said as Kotaro showed him the way out.

"Your welcome to come back anytime." Kotaro said as Itachi ran off towards home, waving back at them until he disappeared out of sight. Once Itachi was out of sight, Kotaro went back inside as faced his sister.

"Saya, when you meet someone, you have to tell them your last name, not just your first name." Kotaro said with a sigh.

"Alright. It won't happen again...Maybe." Saya said with a slight pout. Kotaro sighed again and started heading into the kitchen with Saya and Kilala following behind. Once in the kitchen, Kilala dashed over to her empty food bowl and picked it up and taking it over to the table again. She, then, mewed at the two standing in the doorway, watching her with an amused look on their faces. Kotaro went over to the fridge as Saya walked over to the cabinet and took out the bag of cat food. Saya filled up Kilala's bowl and put the cat food back into the cabinet and sat down at the table as Kotaro prepared dinner for them. Kilala paitently waited for Saya and Kotaro to get their food and she started eating as soon as they did. After they had eaten, it had gotten to be really late, so after they cleaned up the dishes, they both went to bed. Kilala followed Saya into her room and instantly jumped onto her bed and crawled underneath the covers and curled up. Saya smiled at her and then crawled into bed as well.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3: The first mission:**_

**Hey, everyone. Sorry for the wait, but I was having problems with my laptop. It somehow deleted the whole chapter and when I was almost done with it too. So, yeah. Here's chapter three. If there are any idea's you want in the story, don't be afraid to share. Idea's are always welcome.**

The next morning was warm and sunny and Saya and her team were once again told to run from wolves. Saya started getting very annoyed with these training sessions with Shiro-sensei and she wasn't the only one either. Both Mea and Yuki were also getting annoyed as well. When they finally got a break around lunchtime, Mea was the first one to totally lose it. Mea was sitting against a tree facing her friends as she ate her lunch with her eye twitching. Everyone was silent as they ate. Before anyone knew it, Mea had gotten to her feet with annoyance in her eyes as she glared at Shiro-sensei.

"Sensei! Enough of these training sessions already. All we ever did was train for the three weeks since we became genin. Why can't we go on a real mission already!?" Mea asked with an annoyed tone in her voice. Yuki and Saya were silently giggling in the background as Mea yelled at their sensei. Shiro sat silently eating his food for a few more moments before he finally looked up at Mea.

"Alright. I guess you have a point. After lunch, we'll go to the hokage's office and ask for a mission." Shiro said with a sigh as the genin's faces lit up with excitement. After that, the three genin quickly finished their lunches, before Shiro lead them to the hokage's office for their first mission since they've became genin. When the group finally entered the hokage's office, Saya was the first to notice that Kotaro was in the room as well.

"Hey there, little devil." Kotaro said with a smile as soon as he saw Saya walk into the room. As soon as he called her a little devil, Saya pouted and glared at him, which only made him laugh.

"I suppose you are here for a mission, right Kotaro?" Shiro asked as he walked into the room.

"Not exactly. Today, I'll be joining you on your mission." Kotaro said with a smirk aimed at Saya as he ruffled her hair. Saya swatted his hand away and moved away from him, fixing her hair.

"What do you mean?" Mea asked confused.

"You see, we were just about to send for all of you. There's a mission that is only perfect for your group." The hokage said as the hokage's door opened again as a man with black glossy hair and black eyes came into the room with a girl that looked almost exactly like Saya. The girl had long, black hair that went to the middle of her back, just like Saya's did. But, her bangs were sideswept to the side with a white rose hair pin holding it there. The girl also had black eyes. She wore a blue kimono with autumn leaves on it and blue flat shoes as well.

"It's nice to meet you all. My name is Jun Higurashi and this is my daughter Sena." Mr. Higurashi said.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kotaro Kazami. This little devil is..." Kotaro started pointing at Saya, but Saya interrupted him.

"Saya Kazami." Saya said simply, as she gave a sideways glare directed at her brother.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Yuki." Yuki said with a bright smile.

"And I'm Mea!" Mea said cheerfully with a cheerful smile.

"Pleased to meet you. My name is Shiro." Shiro said with a slight nod of his head.

"Mr. Higurashi has been having some trouble with some bandits, threatening to kill his daughter if he doesn't give them what they want. I want Saya to dress up as Sena and be the decoy. Sena will disguise herself as Saya. Make sure they get home safely and watch out for the bandits. But, one more thing, for this to work, Saya and Sena will have to get to know each other by tomorrow morning. You will leave in the morning. That is all. Dismissed." The hokage said as everyone began to leave the room. Once everyone was outside, they all started coming up with excuses to leave Saya and Sena alone together.

"Saya, I'll see you at home. Mr. Higurashi and I are going to talk for awhile." Kotaro said as he lead Mr. Higurashi away from the group.

"We'll see you later, Saya. We have to get home now." Yuki said as she and Mea ran off in the opposite direction of where they lived. Shiro just waved at the two and left without a word. Saya sighed and lead Sena around the village. As they chatted, they started talking about more than themselves. Soon enough, they were both friends and were laughing together. As night fell, Saya walked Sena back to where she was staying before going home herself with a smile on her face. Then, Kilala finally came out of hiding and jumped on Saya's shoulder.

"There you are, Kilala. Where have you been?" Saya asked as she walked into her house and took her shoes off before heading into the living room. That's when she realized that she didn't see her brother's shoes by the front door.

"I wonder when big brother went. He should of been here by now." Saya said as she walked into the kitchen. That's when she saw a note on the table. Saya walked over to the table and picked up the note from her brother and started reading it. The note had said that Kotaro was going to be home late and to find something to eat and then to head to bed. It also said not to stay up and wait for him. When she read the note, Saya pouted and sighed before grabbing an apple and eating it. Once she finished she threw it away and went upstairs and walked into her room and going straight to bed. Late that night, Kotaro finally got home from where ever he was and he quickly took his shoes off and walked upstairs to check up on his sister. Kotaro smiled when he found her sound asleep, practicly curled up in a ball under the covers. He closed the door and quietly made his way to his own room and going to bed himself.

The next morning, Saya refused to get out of bed that morning when Kotaro tried to wake her up. Shiro, Mea, Yuki, Sena, and Mr. Higurashi were all waiting downstairs for Saya to wake up. When Kotaro came back downstairs, rubbing the back of his head, Sena was the first to speak up.

"Where's Saya?" Sena asked.

"It seems that she refuses to get out of bed this morning." Kotaro said walking into the kitchen and then walking out with a pitcher of water in his hand. The others decided to follow Kotaro up the stairs and into Saya's room. Saya was still curled up in a ball beneath the covers. Kotaro pulled the blanket off of her, which made her groan and put her face in her pillow. When Kilala saw that Kotaro was about to dump a pitcher of water on Saya, she quickly ran out of the way as he dumped it on her. Kotaro had dumped a pitcher of very cold water on his sister, which made her spring out of bed. Saya turned and glared at her brother as he quickly ran out of the room, fearing for his life. Saya quickly tackled him to the ground and sat on him with a grumble. The others were watching the whole thing, trying not to laugh at the two sibilings.

"Saya, get off of me and go get ready for the mission." Kotaro said as he tried to get up with his sister on his back. Saya grumbled again and finally got off of him and walked back into her room.

"Here." Sena said as she handed Saya some of her clothes as Saya passed her. Saya nodded and grabbed Sena's wrist instead of the clothes and dragged her into her room. Saya closed the door behind her and both girl's quickly got dressed in the other girl's clothes. When they finished they walked out of the room.

"Wow. You two could actually be twins. Well, except maybe for your eyes." Yuki pointed out. Saya yawned and walked into her bathroom. She pulled something out from under the sink and showed them to the group.

"Saya, why do you have contact lens?" Kotaro asked.

"I've had them for awhile now. Since the halloween before our parents died. I got too lazy to throw them out. It's a good thing I didn't though." Saya said as she took out a pair of black contacts and purple contacts. She handed Sena the purple contacts and then walked into the bathroom and carefully put the black contacts in. Sena did the same. After a couple minutes, both girls were finally ready to go. As Saya reached for her sword, Kotaro stopped her.

"Saya, you should leave your sword here. Your the only one that is able to actually lift the sword." Kotaro said quietly so she was the only one to hear. Saya pouted once more, before getting up and following the group out the door. She was silent most of the time as the group made their way down the path. They had already left the village about 30 minutes ago and were making quick progress towards the Higurashi residence. As they neared the residence, Saya took notice that a bandit were moving around the forest on both sides of the group. But, Saya was the only one to notice, since the others were happily chatting with each other. None of them saw the smoke bomb coming, not even Saya, even though she was paying attention. When the smoke bomb exploded, the slight blast sent Saya flying away from the group and she knew she had to find them quickly before something happened, but Saya had a hard time breathing as well as seeing. Before she knew it, someone had snuck up behind her and knocked her out. The last thing Saya heard was her brother's voice calling her name as she was lifted off the ground and carried away from the group. Then, she blacked out, not realizing that her contacts had fallen out in the prossess.

When she finally came to again, she found herself in a small, dim, empty room. She also realized that her shoes were missing or at least Sena's shoes. She also noticed that her hands were tied behind her back with chains.

_"Fine way to treat a girl." _Saya thought to herself. Suddenly, she saw a small shadow leap into the room threw a broken window. Saya then realized that it was Kilala as soon as she saw Kilala's red eyes.

"Kilala!" Saya whispered as Kilala trotted over to her. Kilala went behind Saya and started biting at the chains binding her wrists.

"Kilala, stop. You'll break your teeth. Go get the others." Saya whispered again. Kilala nodded and jumped back out the broken window, just as the door opened. Saya turned towards the door and saw two men, dressed like shinobi except without a village headband. Saya noticed that the two men were at least twice the size of her brother and looked to be a lot stronger that him as well. One bandit had aqua-green eyes and the other had black.

"Looks like she's finally awake." The bandit with the aqua-green eys said as he knelt down in front of Saya. Saya only looked up at him and glared at him.

"Seems so and it seems like she's going to be a fiesty one at that. Wait. Look at her eyes. This isn't the girl we're after." The bandit with black eyes said. At that, Saya looked up at them both and smirked, clearly proud of herself for tricking them.

"Your right. Damn it! Tells us where the Sena Higurashi is before you get yourself killed, girl." The aqua-green eyed bandit said grabbing Saya's chin and lifting it up so they were at eye level. Saya only continued to smirk without a word to the bandit. She knew that they could easily kill her, but she wasn't about to tell them where her friend was and she didn't even know either. The bandit didn't seem to like Saya's silence or her smirk because he slammed Saya down on the ground with a lot of force.

"Tatsuya, careful. Don't kill her just yet. You can kill her as soon as we know where Sena Higurashi is." The black eyed bandit told his friend.

"Aww. I was only messing around, Daisuke." Tatsuya said with a grin as he stared down at Saya, who saw that the door was wide open. Tatsuya lifted Saya back up to eye level and grabbed Saya's throat with his other hand and held her in a choke hold. Saya struggled to breathe as Tatsuya's grip tighten around her throat. What happened next somewhat surprised the bandits. Saya's struggling for breath, when she suddenly gave Tatsuya a menacing glare before she bit down on his arm with intense force that made him release her. Tatsuya held his bloody arm as Saya laid on the ground with his blood running down her mouth. She was looking up at them with fire in her eyes and neither bandit liked that look. Tatsuya stood over the girl and then suddenly kicked the girl hard in the stomach. Saya coughed up some blood, before Tatsuya kicked her again. This time, he kicked her head. Now, her head was bleeding. Saya knew she needed to get out of there quickly. So, before Tatsuya could kick her again, she swept her foot underneath his making him fall backwards. Saya quickly jumped to her feet and ran for the door, only to be stopped by the other bandit, but he didn't exactly stop her from jumping over him and continue running out of the hideout.

Saya kicked open the front door and rushed outside, only to find herself wincing with every step she made. Saya had to run over many sharp rocks and thorns that cut her feet pretty badly. As Saya ran, she started feeling dizzy and she thought it was because of the head wound she had, but she continued running anyway. She just wanted to get away from the two bandits. She never noticed where she was going and she tripped over a rock. She fell to the ground hard and she laid there for a few second to catch her breath. When she tried to get up, she realized that the bandits had caught up to her, when Tatsuya had grabbed her hair and pulled her up to her feet.

"Nice try, girl. But, you have to do better than that." Tatsuya hissed angrily. As he held Saya up by her hair, Kilala suddenly came out of nowhere and jumped at him. Sadly, Tatsuya saw the little cat and smacked it away from him as Kotaro and the others arrived at the clearing.

"Saya!" Kotaro said with concern. When he saw the bandit holding Saya up by her hair, his eyes grew full of anger and hatred. Kotaro pulled out his own weapon, which was a dagger and got ready to charge towards Tatsuya.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Tatsuya said with a voice full of amusment. Tatsuya suddenly had a kunai against Saya's throat. A drop of blood trickled down her neck as he pressed slightly into her neck, making Kotaro freeze. Saya figured that she would have a scar on the side of her neck, if she ever got free from the bandits. Then, both bandits saw Sena standing by her father.

"So, that girl is Sena Higurashi. We'll be happy to release this girl, if you hand over Sena Higurashi, that is unless you have the money we want." Daisuke said as he stood in front of Tatsuya and Saya. Before anyone knew, Saya had somehow turned around and kicked Tatsuya in the face, which caused him to throw Saya across the clearing and nearly over the edge of a cliff and into a river below. Saya slowly tried to sit up, but Tatsuya was already next to her and had his hand around her throat again.

"Saya!" Mea cried out as Saya struggled to breathe.

"You better make your decision quickly." Daisuke said with a smirk on his face. At his words, Sena started to walk towards the two bandits, but a harsh glare from Saya stopped her in her tracks. Saya's glare practically paralyzed everyone in the clearing.

"Don't even think about it. If you hand yourself over to these bandits, then I will never forgive you." Saya said. Suddenly, she kicked Tatsuya in the stomach, which made his release Saya, only to have her fall over the edge and into the water below. Kotaro quickly rushed forward and jumped off the cliff after his sister and dived into the water below as the remaining ninja engaged to bandits. They successfully defeated the bandits and they quickly made their way to the banks of the river where they watched and waited for Kotaro and Saya to come up for air.

Kotaro was looking through the crystal clear water, looking for his sister, who had passed out from blood loss and lack of air. Kotaro instantly spotted Saya with her eyes closed, floating down towards the bottom and he quickly swam over to her. He held her in his arms and started swimming back up to the surface, where they both gasped for air. Saya was still out cold, when they got to the bank with the others. Kotaro untied the chains and held his sister in his arms, protectively. He was very grateful, she didn't drown.

When Saya woke up again, she noticed that she was back in her own room back in the leaf village. Saya slowly sat up and looked around the room. She noticed that Kilala was curled up in a ball at her side, but when she sat up, Kilala was runnin around the room happily. Then, she heard her bedroom door open and when she looked up she saw her brother walking into the room.

"Big brother?" Saya asked, confused on how she got there.

"Nice to see your awake, little sis. You've been out cold for about three days. Here, you must be hungry." Kotaro said gently as he handed Saya a bowl of miso soup. Saya smiled sweetly and took the bowl.

"Thank you." Saya said as she started eating.

"Those bandits left a very visible scar on the side of your neck. I'm sorry I couldn't do anything for you." Kotaro said sadly.

"It's not your fault, big brother. It's those bandits. Anyway, what happened to the bandits?" Saya asked as she traced the scar on her neck.

"I'm afraid that they got away from the others." Kotaro said, shaking his head. "Anyway, Shiro-sensei came by to give this to you." Kotaro pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to Saya. On the paper were details for an exam called the Chunin exams.

"Chunin exams?" Saya asked, looking up at her brother confused.

"That's right. It's an exam that will allow genin ninja to become chunin. Shiro-sensei happened to recommend all three of you. You have a month to train for it, but first you should rest. Your feet still haven't healed from whatever you did to them." Kotaro said as he ruffled Saya's hair and started walking out of the room. Once he left, Saya looked at the paper again and determination filled her eyes.

_"I will pass this exam and become stronger for sure!"_ Saya thought to herself as Kilala jumped on the bed and curled up beside her again and fell sound asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4: A new nickname:**_

A week after Kotaro told Saya about the chunin exams, Saya's feet finally healed enough to the point where she could finally start training for the exam. Although, the bandages around her feet felt uncomfortable, she had no choice, but to deal with it. Kotaro had also gotten permission from Shiro to train Saya, instead of him.

It was a bright, cool morning when Saya quickly made her way downstairs. Saya's hair was soft and straight after she just brushed it and it seemed to glow with the morning sun. She wore her usual clothing, revealing the cresent moon shape tattoos on both of her shoulders and her precious sword on her back. Kotaro was at her side as she got her shoes on, he stared at the tattoos on her shoulder and quietly sighed to himself, cursing himself for keeping an important secret from Saya for so long. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard his name being called.

"Big brother? Are you okay?" Saya asked as she held the front door slightly open, looking at her brother with eyes that shone bright with the morning sun.

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about what I should teach you." Kotaro lied as he followed his sister out the door. All of a sudden, Saya's head throbbed and she quickly held her head. As soon as the throbbing started she started hearing all sorts of voices around her even though no one was talking. Kotaro noticed and had his hands on Saya's shoulder since he knew exactly what was wrong.

_"Her powers are beginning to show themselves." _Kotaro thought, which Saya heard in her thought and she looked up at her brother.

"What do you mean by powers?" Saya asked in a low voice, her head still throbbing. Kotaro quickly pulled Saya back into the house and locked the front door. He, then, lead her to the living room and made her sit on the couch, kneeling down in front of her.

"Saya, there's something I should have told you a long time ago, but was too afraid to do so. Your head is throbbing like crazy and you can hear voices in your head when no one seems to be talking, right?" Kotaro asked, seriousness in his eyes. Saya nodded, but Kotaro kept silent. But, he was talking to her with his mind.

_"Saya, you have to concentrate your mind on my thoughts. Then, the throbbing and other voices will stop." _Kotaro thought. Saya hesitated for a sceond before using all her concentration to focus on her brother's voice and it worked. Saya could only hear her brother's thoughts and the throbbing had ceased.

"Big brother, what's going on with me?" Saya asked as tears started filling her eyes, but she never let them flow over. Kotaro looked at her silently and then he sighed.

"Saya, there's something that I should have told you a long time ago, but I was too scared to do so." Kotaro said his head down.

"W-what do you mean?" Saya asked a little worried, which was out of character for her. But, she had no Idea what was happening to her. Kotaro sighed again and then sat on the couch next to Saya.

"You see, you have have two extremly rare abilities in your eyes and your tattoos on both your shoulders." Kotaro said, suddenly serious. Saya looked up at her brother in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Saya asked as Kilala jumped into her lap.

"What I'm trying to say is that one of your special abilities comes from your eyes. Have you ever noticed that your eyes don't match with anyone in the village at all?" Kotaro asked and Saya nodded.

"Your eyes give you the power to read your opponents mind. If you can learn how to use it quickly, it just might help you with the chunin exams. But, you must keep this a secret from your friends and everyone else. Do you understand me?" Kotaro asked and Saya nodded again.

"Good. Now, as for your other power, this tattoos hold the power to bring a dying soul back to life. I will teach you how to use it later, since it won't really be needed anytime soon. But, you can only use this power once. Do you understand?" Kotaro asked again and again Saya nodded. Kotaro sighed and ruffled his sister's hair.

"For now, I just want you to only focus on one person's thought at a time. Do you think you can handle going back outside?" Kotaro asked as he stood up and Saya also stood up with a pout on her face.

"I'm not that weak. I can handle it. You don't have to worry about me." Saya said as she made her way back to the door. As they both walked down the village streets, Saya focused her thoughts on everyone she passed and a few things, she wished she never heard. All in all, Saya learned very quickly on how to remain focused on one person's thoughts even when she talked to others. When she had master her mind reading ability, Kotaro taught her how to save a dying soul and she had also quickly learned how to do that as well. It took her about two whole weeks to master her new powers and she now had about two weeks left before the chunin exams started.

One day, Saya was wondering around her village and somehow found her way to the training area, where she saw a shinobi with white hair training. Saya realized that it was Kakashi, her brother's friend and he was training with a new jutsu he had created. Saya started reading his mind and memorized his movements and within a few minutes Saya could easily form the jutsu that Kakashi called Lightning chidori. When he finally decided to leave, Saya also started practicing with the new jutsu and then she got an idea. She took out her sword and stabbed it into the ground and then made the hand signs for the lightning chidori. She, then, grabbed her sword and allowed the chidori to spread throughout her blade. She focused her chakra on the blade and then she spun around and aimed her sword at the tree in front of her. The chakra and the chirdori made a blade itself, but it was extremely strong. The chakra blade cut down the tree in front of her without her blade even touching it, but it also took down a few other trees as well.

"Oops." Saya said when she saw all the damage she'd done. Without another second of hesitation, Saya ran from the training area as fast as possible and making sure no one suspected anything. As the day past, the villagers eventually saw the damage to the training area, but none of them figured out who was responsible for it, but Kotaro had his suspicions aimed at Saya, but she only denied it. As the days past, the village's had given Saya a nickname, because of her appearance and her strength after a certain incident that had happened in the village market.

Saya was walking down the village street with Mea and Yuki. All three of them were talking about the chunin exams when they heard someone yell thief. They looked up to see a man running towards them with a woman's purse in hand. Yuki and Mea quickly moved aside as the man pulled out a kunai knife as he ran towards Saya, who stayed where she was with a glare upon her face. Saya sighed and as the thief tried to stab her, she quickly moved aside and then swiftly jumped and kicked the man in the back and pinning him to the ground. As soon as he hit the ground, he was out cold. Everyone around her just stared in awe at how easily she handled the situation. Saya picked up the purse the man had and handed it back to the woman that it belonged to as Mea and Yuki walked up to her again.

"Talk about an angelic devil." Mea said.

"Angelic devil?" Saya asked as she turned to her friend in confusion.

"That's it! That's your new nickname! The angelic devil of the leaf!" Mea said loudly. Saya continued to stare at her in confusion.

"I think it suits you perfectly. Everyone thinks your like an angel, but when you fight your a devil that can't be beaten, so I agree with Mea on this nickname." Yuki said with a smile as Saya only pouted, which ended up turning into a small laugh. The girl's talked for awhile more, before it got dark and they had to go home. On the way home, Saya ended up wondering where Kilala had gotten to, until she spotted a familar boy with Kilala in his arms. She quickly walked over to him and almost startling them both.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you two." Saya said with a teasing smile as Kilala jumped onto her shoulder.

"You didn't scare me, just startled me is all." Itachi said, rubbing the back of his head, avoiding Saya's eyes.

"Anyway, it's nice to see you again, Itachi. What are you doing out so late?" Saya asked.

"Oh..Um. I just wanted to give you something for the chunin exams for luck. Here, I made it. I hope you like it." Itachi said with a blush as he held out a silver ring with black edges and black flames in the middle to Saya. Saya took the ring and held it up to the moon and smiled.

"Wow, you actually made this?" Saya asked impressed.

"Yeah." Itachi said, still blushing.

"It's really pretty. Thank you, but I don't have anything to give you. Wait! I know!" Saya said with a smile. Itachi looked up at her and before he knew it Saya had kissed him on the cheek and was looking at him with a sweet smile.

"T-thank you. I'll s-see you later. Good luck." Itachi said, bright red as he ran off waving. Saya waved back at him, until he disappeared out of sight. Saya looked at the ring again and then put the ring on her pointer finger on her right hand and then started on her way back to her house.

That night, as Saya slept peacefully, just outside her window a few houses down a man in an akatsuki coat stood watching her sleep, through her curtains. As he watched her, a familiar figure appeared beside him. It was Shiro.

"If the girl passes the chunin exams, you know what to do right, little brother?" The man asked.

"Of course, but why wait till she's a chunin?" Shiro asked.

"Because, one chunin go on dangerous missions on their own at times and I could easily take her then and second, she's still too weak to take me on. I watch a challenge out of her." The man said and Shiro only nodded as they both suddenly disappeared, not knowing that Kilala happened to stare at them through the curtains with distrust in her eyes.

A few days later, when finally the first exam of the chunin exams finally started. Saya was very eager, but her teammates were a bit nervous, but with Saya's cheerful attitude, they soon were also eager as well, just not as eager. The three of them quickly approached the door to the first exam and when they entered, they saw that there were many ninja from other villages, but Saya's determination never faltered. As soon as they walked into the room and shut the door, Saya instantly saw her brother there, but he also noticed her and motined for her to ingore him and she did. Then, a ninja from another village got the courage to approach Saya and get in her face.

"I think you got the wrong room, _little girl._ This room is for ninja's." The ninja said with a sneer. Saya stood her ground and only stared at him. Then, what happened next no one saw coming. Saya suddenly grabbed the ninja's shirt and threw him across the room into the wall, which his head got stuck in and everyone in the room was laughing as his teammates helped him. The ninja was pissed now as he stormed his way back over to Saya. He tried to punch her, but she only grabbed his fist and started to squeeze his fist until it hurt. She stood there only smiling up at him. When Saya opened her eyes and looked him straight in the eyes, he froze as did everyone else in the room as a deadly aura around Saya filled the room and paralyzed everyone, including Kotaro.

"Listen here, you bastard. I may be a _little girl,_ but I would suggest that you not mess around with me. Got it?" Saya asked in a deadly voice that made the ninja flinch away.

"Who the hell are you?" The ninja asked as he backed away from her. At that question, Saya smiled again.

"I am Saya Kazami, the angelic devil of the leaf." She said as the room went quiet. Everyone in the room moved away from Saya and her team as they waited for the proctor. When he finally came into the room, he could feel the deadly aura in the room and he shivered, but he then quickly dismissed the feeling and spoke to the group clearly. He told all of them to turn in the paper they got for a written exam and a seat number and they all did. Saya was glad that Mea was seated behind her and Kotaro was seated in front of her.

Saya got the idea of reading her brother's mind for the answers and she knew that Mea had her ways of cheating on a test, even she didn't know how she did it until she read her mind and found out that she had some sort of spy bug that sent waves to her pencil that did all the work for her. Saya was also grateful that Yuki was very smart and could manage on her own even when she was on the other side of the room all the way in the front. The proctor told everyone all the rooms and then told them they had half an hour to complete the exam.

Then, they all began on his signal. Saya quickly read her brother's mind and lazily wrote all the answers down on the paper, leaning to the left, knowing Mea was looking. Saya yawned as she pretended to yawn, while Kilala let out a yawn and quickly fell asleep on the desk. About 20 minutes into the exam, Saya had finally got all the answers from her brother and she also knew that both of her teammates were also done with the exam. Then, all of a sudden, a kunai knife flew past her face and hit the exam of the ninja from before and she knew that he was caught cheating. As he past, he looked at Saya and she sneered at him and that pissed him off, but he couldn't do anything about it. Many other teams were also caught and they also had to leave. When the test was finally over, only half of the ninja's that had signed up were left after the exam.

After the exam, the proctor told them the location of the second exam and that it would be held the next day and then he dismissed all the ninja. Saya stretched and yawned with Kilala zigzagging around her feet as she walked with her teammates and her brother.

"Big brother, I didn't know you were going to be in the exam." Saya said as she started walking backwards, facing her brother. Yuki and Mea looked between the two.

"What!? That exam was meant for us to cheat!?" Mea asked loudly.

"That's right. A couple of chunin and jounin level ninja sit in the room with all the genin. The test was met to be hard so that people would cheat, but only if they do it with caution." Kotaro said as they left the building. When they walked outside, the sun was starting to go down.

"That's not really fair." Mea said with a pout.

"That's coming from someone, who cheated off of me?" Saya asked with a teasing smile. Mea smiled back with a shrug.

"For others, that is." Mea added with a small laugh and the others laughed too. They all finally said good-bye and went their seperate ways for the night. Saya knew that she was in for a big day tomorrow.

"Good luck to you, little sis. Hope you pass the second exam." Kotaro said as they walked into the house and Saya walked upstairs. She leaned slightly leaned over the railing above the couch and stared down at her brother who was lying on the couch, looking up at her.

"Don't worry about me. I will definitely pass the second exam without fail." Saya said with a determined smile, before running off to bed. Kotaro smiled and also got up to go to bed.

_"She's starting to sound just like you, mom." _Kotaro thought as he walked into his room, not realizing that Saya had read his thoughts and was smiling at his words.

_"I may sound like mom, but your the spitting image of dad." _Saya thought as she drifted off into a deep sleep, with Kilala curled up beside her.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5: The second exam:**_

Early the next morning, Saya woke up with a start. She had just woken up from a dream that seemed like more of a vision.

_Two graves stood in front of Saya with her teammates names on them, their names were also carved into the KIA stone as well. Saya looked to her left and saw a figure in an akatsuki coat and another figure standing next to him, that looked like Shiro. She could tell they were talking, but couldn't hear what they were saying. Then everything went black and Saya woke up to find herself in her room._

Saya's eyes flew open and she jolted into a sitting position on her bed, breathing heavily.

"What was that?" Saya asked herself in a low voice, making sure not to wake Kilala, who was curled up next to her. Saya sat up, pulling her knees closer to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. She stared out her bedroom window as the sun began to rise and as she watched, she started to smile again, forgetting all about the vision she had. Saya was starting to doze off again, when her brother knocked on her door, startling her.

"Saya, it's time to get up. You don't want to miss the second exam." Kotaro said through the door.

"I'll be right down." Saya called back to him as she stroked Kilala's soft back. She heard Kotaro's footsteps wade away, before finally getting out of bed and walking over to her dresser. Saya quickly got dressed, before leaving her room and walking into her bathroom and brushing her hair. After her hair was brushed, she quickly made her way downstairs, even though she knew she had plenty of time and didn't have to rush. Kilala trotted right behind Saya as she walked into the kitchen. When she walked into the kitchen she saw a small gift box on the table where she usually sat and her brother was sitting at his spot, smiling up at her.

"What's this for?" Saya asked as she sat down and started poking at the box.

"Have you forgotten?" Kotaro asked.

"Forgotten what?" Saya asked still a little confused. Kotaro shook his head with a sigh.

"I can't believe you would forget your own birthday." Kotaro said, his head in his hand, with his eyes closed. Saya looked at him in confusion, before finally realizing that it was her birthday.

"I can't believe I forgot!" Saya said, stunned. Kotaro looked at his sister again and rolled his eyes with a small sigh.

"That gift is from both Mom and Dad. They told me not to give it to you, until you were 13. So, hurry up and open it." Kotaro said as he pushed the gift box closer to his sister. Saya gently opened the box and found two things that had belonged to her parents. One was a red ribbon that her mother had used to tie her hair up in a pony-tail when it got too long. The other gift was from her father. Her father had given her his necklace with a wolf carving on it. Saya held the two gifts in her hand with a smile on her face. Then, her brother came up behind her and took the two items. He helped her tie her hair up in a high pony-tail and put the necklace on.

"Don't lose them, okay?" Kotaro asked as he put the necklace around her neck.

"I promise." Saya said gently as she touched the wolf charm.

"Good. Anyway, you should hurry up and meet with your friends." Kotaro said as they both stood up. Kotaro watched as Saya ran back up to her room and then came back downstairs with her sword on her back. He watched as she put her shoes on and then run out the door. Kotaro stood outside the door watching as Saya ran down the street.

"Don't you dare die!" Kotaro called out to her. Saya turned around with a smile and a wave.

"I don't feel like dying today! Don't worry! I'll be fine!" Saya called back with a smile as she disappeared around the corner with Kilala running beside her.

"You tell me to not worry, and yet that only makes me worry more." Kotaro said quietly to himself as he walked back into the house. When Saya finally caught up to her friends at the location for the second exam, they had just started the explanation of the exam, which was known as the forest of death. No one noticed that Saya came in late, except her friends, who only shook their heads at her. Saya only gave them a friendly smile, before turning her attention back to the proctor. The proctor told them to line up for a piece of paper that they had to sign in case they died. She told them that they all had to read through it, but Saya knew somehow that she wasn't going to die that day and just went ahead and signed it.

Saya had to wait for the others to finish reading the paper, before they finally had all the genin line up with their teams behind a curtain. They would turn in three papers with signatures for either a earth or heaven scroll. As they waited, Saya started reading the other teams minds, memorizing what team had what scroll and that's when she noticed Itachi and his group. She shook her head to clear it and started looking around again, but her eyes kept going over to Itachi and his group, but mostly Itachi.

"What you looking at Saya?" Mea said in a teasing voice, bringing Saya's attention back to her group with a slight blush on her cheeks.

"N-nothing!" Saya said quickly, but both girl's were smirking at Saya.

"You like him don't you?" Yuki asked in a low, teasing voice.

"Do not!" Saya said loudly with a blush, which caught Itachi's attention. Once Itachi looked at Saya and both their eyes met, they both quickly looked away, their faces bright red. Both their teams were laughing at them. After a few more minutes, Saya's group was finally called up and they all turned in theri forms in exchange for a heaven scroll.

After everyone got a scroll, they were told to line up at a gate and to get ready to start. Once the gates opened, every single team sped into the forest. Saya's group stopped a mile from the starting point to discuss what their plan was.

"Before, we do anything else, I think Saya should hold the scroll. After all, she is the angelic devil of the leaf." Mea said with a small smile as she handed Saya the heaven scroll. Saya rolled her eyes and took the scroll from her and putting it in her pouch.

"So, how are we going to find a team with an earth scroll?" Yuki asked. All of a sudden, the three girl's were attacked by someone above them. They all avoided the attack easily and then pulled out their own weapons as they faced the enemy. The ninja that had attack were sound ninja.

"Look at this. It seems that we've found three _little girls._" The head ninja said with a smirk as he ran towards Saya with a kunai knife in hand. The other two ninja followed behind him. Saya growled and then stabbed her sword into the ground, then she did the hand signs for lightning chidori. She then, grabbed her blade, making the chidori spread throughout the blade. By now, the three sound ninja had stopped moving and were watching her with slight interest. Yuki and Mea also watched her as they stood a few feet behind her.

"You have some nerve, calling me a little girl, after that show I put on yesterday." Saya said, slight anger and annoyance in her voice as she spun around and released the lightning chidori chakra blade towards the sound ninja. The ninja quickly got out of the way as the blade flew towards them. Everyone, except Saya stood in awe as they saw about most of the forest was cut down with one single chakra blade from Saya's sword. The three sound ninja, quickly turned towards Saya as she approached with slight fear in their eyes.

"Y-your a monster!" One of the ninja said, which made Saya slightly flinch and stop in her tracks. Kilala could sense her mistress's emotions conflicting inside her and decided that she would take over the fight for her. Kilala jumped in front of the sound ninja's and in a fire vortex swirling up around her, she transformed into a great feline beast with sabertooth-like teeth and flames around her feet. She had grown to about the size of horse, maybe a little bit smaller. Kilala lunged forward at the surprised sound ninja, while the three stood back in shock at Kilala's action. Saya was the first one to quickly snap out of her daze and rushed to help her feline friend, attacking with Kilala. The three sound ninja knew that they couldn't win the fight and decided that they should retreat and think up another plan. That is, until one of the sound ninja, spotted a river near them and he noted that it was flowing fast.

The sound ninja looked between the river and Saya and her team, before coming up with a plan. Using sound waves, he allowed his teammates in on his plan and they both agreed to it. Before anyone knew it, all three sound ninja had ganged up on Yuki and before Saya or Mea could rush to her side, one sound ninja had kicked Yuki in the stomach really hard, sending her flying into the fast moving river.

"Yuki!" Saya yelled as she spun in the air quickly, kicking one of the sound ninja's in the head and knocking him out cold. The other two notcied that their teammate was out cold and finally decided to retreat. Saya ignored the fleeing ninja as she ran down the riverbank after her friend, who had the wind knocked out of her, let alone fight the fast-moving river. As Saya ran, she caught sight of a rock ahead of them and she instantly picked up speed, running faster towards the rock, before Yuki got there. Mea and Kilala were also running after her, but Saya was faster than them both and had left them behind.

Once she made it to the huge rock, she jumped on it and then realizing that it was really slippery after almost falling into the river as well. But, she kept her balance and was on her knees, reaching out her hand to Yuki, who was struggling to stay above the water. As Yuki got closer, Saya quickly grabbed he, trying to pull her up on the rock, when she realized that she was slipping off the rock. Without thinking, Saya flung Yuki onto the bank with Kilala and Mea, before she disappeared into the river.

"Saya!" Both Mea and Yuki yelled as soon as Saya disappeared into the river. Kilala was pacing back and forth on the bank waiting for her mistress to resurface, but by then, Saya had been swept farther downstream, leaving both Mea and Yuki to fight for themselves. As Saya was swepted downstream, she struggled to reach the surface, but the water only pushed her down farther. She kept wandering why her ability to breath under water wasn't working. That's when she realized that her ability to breath under water only worked, when she had held her breath before going under the water and in this case, she didn't and she silently cursed herself as she continued to struggle for breath. Before she even knew it, she was falling over a waterfall. This time, before she hit the water, she had taken a deep breath, but when she hit the water at the bottom of the waterfall, she accidently released it because of the imact.

Almost instantly, the water started to calm down and had allowed Saya to swim to the surface for air. Saya quickly resurface gasping for breath and then she weakly swam for the river bank and almost instantly passed out when she got out of the water.

_"Kilala, please watch over Mea and Yuki. I'll find you, soon." _Saya thought as she passed out. As if Kilala had her thoughts, Kilala protected the two genin as they wondered around the forest in search of their missing teammate. When Saya finally woke up again, she realized that the sun was going done. Even though she was weak, Saya forced her body to get up. She stumbled into the forest searching for her friends. When the sun finally went down, Saya collapsed under a tree from exhastution.

_"I can't believe I was beat by a river."_ Saya thought to herself with a small chuckle as she took out her mother's hair ribbon and dryed her hair, before putting tying it back in her hair. As Saya rested under the tree, she kept hold of her sword that was lying next to her on her right side and a kunai knife in her other hand, hoping that her friends were safe. Soon enough, Saya had fallen asleep without realizing it, but yet, she was startled out of sleep with every sound she heard, which was every so often. But, she rested enough for her to recover by morning.

When morning came, Saya was wide awake and gathering her stuff before heading out to find her teammates. By then, Saya had already figured out that another team was following her and was thinking that she was an easy target, since she was alone. Saya stopped walking and slightly turned her gaze to the hidden team within the trees and smiled at them.

"I know your there. You can't hide from me. So come on out and show your faces." Saya said with a bright smile on her face. The other team looked at each other in disbelief, but nonetheless they jumped in front of Saya, weapons ready to go. But, before any of them could attack, Saya had disappeared and then reappeared behind them with a smirk on her face as all three of them collapsed to the ground. Saya had her sword over her shoulder with blood dripping off the edge of it. The three ninja laid face first on the ground with blood around them. Saya put her sword up again and then went over to the ninja in the middle and rummaged through his pouch, until she found what she was looking for. An earth scroll. With another smile, Saya put the scroll in her pouch. At that moment, she realized that the heaven scroll could have been damaged from the water. Saya quickly took the scroll out and gave out a sigh of relief when she found that is wasn't damaged from the water. She put both scrolls in her pouch, before standing up again and walking away from the three genin.

As she walked, she was thinking of ways to find her friends, without bringing to much attention to herself, but didn't come up with anything, so she kept walking, until it got dark again. That's when she realized that she was hungry and she thanked god for having remember to put food pills in her pouch. Even though she knew that she would be completely worn out in a few days when they worn off, but at least she wouldn't need to eat anything for awhile.

When the morning of the third day of the exam came, Saya was more determined to find her friends before the exam ended in two days. As Saya walked around, she was stuck in her thoughts, when she suddenly heard something behind her. Saya instantly had her sword pointed at her enemy, until she realized that it was Mea and Yuki standing in front of her, almost scared stiff, with Saya's sword at their throats and all. Saya quickly put her sword up again and gave a small sigh.

"Don't sneak up on me like that! I nearly cut your throats." Saya said with her hands on her hips.

"Note to self, don't EVER sneak up on Saya." Yuki said with a small laugh. Saya only rolled her eyes as Kilala jumped on her shoulder and rubbed up against her cheek. Mea was also slightly giggling too.

"I'm glad, we finally found you. I thought you were lost for awhile. Kilala protected us, while we searched for you." Mea said cheerfully.

"Really? Thanks, Kilala. Your a good girl.." Saya said with a smile, as she scratched behind Kilala's ears, causing her to purr.

"Anyway, I think we should hurry. We still need to find the earth scroll." Yuki said, suddenly becoming serious. Saya only shook her head and smiled as she pulled both scrolls out of her pouch and showed them to her friends.

"How did you get an earth scroll by yourself!?" Yuki asked, shocked. Mea was also shocked as well, but the shock soon turned into one of excitement.

"Yay! Now we have both scrolls! We can start heading to the tower now!" Mea said excitedly. Saya only giggled as Yuki remained shock, but she also got over it and didn't ask anymore questions as they all made their way to the tower, with Kilala leading them. It wasn't long before the group finally arrived at the tower. When they walked into the tower, Saya noticed some writing on the wall. She started reading it out loud, when her friends also noticed it as well. Then, without realizing it, Kilala had both scrolld opened, one on top of the other on the floor in front of them. The three girl's quickly jumped back in surprise, when smoke filled the area around the scrolls. When smoke cleared, the three girl's were all surprised to see Kotaro standing before them.

"Big brother? What are you doing here?" Saya asked, surprised as she approached her brother. When Kotaro looked down at his sister, he noticed a small scratch on her forehead, beneath her bangs, and like a brother, he started panicking.

"What happened to your head? The scratch doesn't look too bad. Are you hurt anywhere else?" Kotaro asked as he cupped Saya's face and brushed her bangs aside so he could see the scratch. Without warning, Saya pushed her brother away and sighed.

"I'm fine. Tell me, why are you here?" Saya asked again.

"Oh! That's because, the hokage told some jounin and chunin to wait for the teams to finish the second exam and to congradulate them. That's why I'm here. Congradulations, you three, you have passed the second exam." Kotaro said with a smile. The three girl's looked at each other and smiled at each other.

"Everything about the final exam will be explained, when the exam ends on the fifth day. So, you can stay and relax in the tower until then. I will see you guys later." Kotaro said with a smile as he disappeared again.

"Your brother is really protective, isn't he?" Mea asked as she walked beside Saya as all three of them enter the main hall.

"Of course. He is my older brother, after all." Saya said with a smile directed towards Mea, before she suddenly tackled Mea, like she use to do back at the ninja academy. They both rolled around on the floor, while Yuki stood watching a few feet away with a smile on her face and her hands on her hips, shaking her head.

"What am I going to do with you two?" Yuki said, with a small laugh. The two girl's continued wrestling and laughing, both trying to pin down the other. Then, Kilala decided to join in. She transformed and jumped on both of them, pinning them both down.

"Looks like Kilala wins." Yuki said laughing, while the two girls tried to push Kilala off of them, while laughing as well.

_"With my friends around and my brother and of course Kilala, I feel like I belong here. If anything happened to them, I don't know what I would do." _Saya thought to herself as she smiled brightly at her two friends helped her up after Kilala got off of them.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6: The final exam:**_

The last two days of the second exam passed by quickly with both Mea and Saya almost always either running from Kilala, or chasing her around with a ribbon. Yuki only watched from the sidelines with a book in her hand. Their actions also amused the other ninja teams in the tower as well, including Itachi. Finally the morning of the fifth day of the second exam came and all the teams that had passed were lined up with their teammates as they waited for the hokage to tell them about the last exam.

"Congradulations to all of you, who have passed the second exam. Now listen carefully. For the final exam, you all will have to fight each other. The last 6 genin to survive will become chunin. The final exam will take place in the arena and it will begin in one month. During that month, you all are to train and prepare for the final exam. I wish you all luck. Dismissed." The hokage said as all the teams started to leave the tower and walk back to the village. Saya, Mea, and Yuki walked back to the village talking about the final exam.

"If I could choose, who I was up against, I will definitely not choose Saya." Mea said with a teasing smile. Saya pouted, which made her friends laugh.

"For now, we should train until the exam. But, for the moment, I'm going home to take a shower and then actually get some sleep." Yuki said ans the others nodded in agreement, before they all slipt up and started towards home. Saya stretched as she walked into her house. When she walking inside, she didn't see her brother's shoes at the doorway, but she knew that he was out on a mission and didn't really worry to much as she took her shoes off and walked upstairs and into her room. She threw her sword against her bed and threw her pouch on her bed, before grabbing some clothes and heading to the bathroom. After her shower, Saya went back into her room and tossed her pouch and sword aside, before flopping on her bed completely worn out. Before long, she was fast asleep with Kilala watching her. Saya laid on her side, practically curled up, her breathing steady.

When Kotaro came home that afternoon, he took notice of his sister's shoes at the doorway. He took his own shoes off before heading upstairs into Saya's room. As soon as he looked into her room, he smiled at how peacefully Saya slept. He quietly made his way over to the side of her bed and pulling the covers over her, before walking downstairs again. Kotaro walked into the kitchen and started making dinner. As Kotaro made dinner, Kilala came downstairs and jumped on the counter as she watched Kotaro make dinner with her red eyes. Not long after that, Saya woke up and was tiredly making her way into the kitchen as Kotaro finished putting food on the table.

"Hey there. Enjoy your little nap?" Kotaro asked with a smile as Saya rubbed her eyes and sat down at the table. Saya only nodded at his question as she slowly ate her food, tiredly. Once Kotaro and Saya were finished the put their plates into the sink. Saya walked into the living room and collapsed onto the couch, falling asleep once more, Kotaro only smiled at her.

"You can't fall asleep here, little sis." Kotaro said as he gently picked Saya up and walked upstairs into her room. Kotaro gently laid his sister down and tucked her in before quietly leaving the room.

The next morning, Saya woke up refreshed and ready to go. Once Saya woke up she quickly got dressed and then grabbed her sword on the way out. She walked into the kitchen to find Kotaro setting a plate down on the table.

"Morning, Saya. What do you plan on doing today? Slow down, or you'll choke!" Kotaro said sternly as Saya rushed through breakfast. Once she had finished she quickly put her plate in the sink and went to the door to get her shoes on.

"I'm going to see what kind of jutsu I can mess around with." Say said as she waved to her brother, who was standing by thr door watching her disappear around the corner. He sighed and shook his head and then started getting his own shoes on as well.

"I think I should keep an eye on her." Kotaro said as he started following Saya. Farther ahead, Saya was walking down the village streets, looking around as she walked. She loved when people weren't in a rush and children ran around laughing. Suddenly, Saya heard some children shouting and chasing a small dragon that was heading her way.

"Wait! Ren, come back here!" A girl with turquiose hair shouted as she and two other kids ran after the small dragon. The dragon tried to run passed Saya's legs, but she managed to caught the dragon before it ran passed and held it in her arms. Then, she noticed that the girl with turquiosed hair had a red ribbon in her hand as she ran to caught up to Saya.

"Thank you, miss, for catching my dragon." The girl said as a girl with black hair and a mask over her mouth and nose ran up behind her with a boy with orange hair.

"I don't suppose your dragon ran away when you tried to put the bow on her, did she?" Saya asked and the the girl nodded.

"How did you know?" The boy asked.

"Well, you see, I have a pet of my own and it happened once before. She's trying to tell you, she doesn't want it on." Saya said as she handed the dragon back to the girl.

"I know. I just wanted to put it on her anyway. My name's Kasumi by the way." The girl, holding the dragon said.

"Nice to meet you, Kasumi. My name is Saya." She said with a smile.

"This one is Ren. That's Naruto and that's Zero." Kasumi said cheerfully. Saya smiled again as Kilala jumped onto Saya's shoulder.

"There you are, Kilala." Saya said as she stroked Kilala behind the ear.

"That's a strange cat." Naruto said as he tried to touch Kilala, who softly hissed at him. Saya flicked her ear and she instantly stopped, allowing Naruto to stroke her fur. That's when Saya noticed that Zero was looking at her sword. Saya smiled again and took her sword off and held it in front of her.

"Woah! That's a huge sword. Can I hold it?" Naruto asked.

"I'm afraid not. I'm the only one that's able to wield it." Saya said as she ran a hand over the designs on the blade. They talked for a few more minutes, before the kids had to leave. When they left, Saya stretched and started walking again. The day passed by slowly as Saya watched some ninja and learned all the jutsu they knew and she added a techique to every jutsu she knew. During the remainer of the month, Saya trained with Kotaro watching over her, making sure she didn't destroy anything. When the day of the final exam finally came, Saya was ready. What the others didn't know was that they wouldn't last very long against Saya if she decided to draw her sword.

Saya and all the other genin were all waiting in the stands for the exam to start, when Saya happened to look over to the stands for the visitors and she saw Iruka and his class.

"Mea, Yuki, Look. It's Iruka-sensei and his class." Saya said turning to her friends and pointing towards the stands.

"They must be here to learn or observe on how ninja fight with other ninja." Yuki said and the other two girls nodded in agreement. Before they could say another word, the exam proctor finally came out onto the field.

"The final exam will finally begin. 12 ninja will face off against each other and only 6 will be able to chunin level. The first match will be Yuki vs. Itachi Uchiha!" The proctor announced. Both Yuki and Itachi quickly made their way down to the arena, before facing each other and waiting for the match to start.

_"I didn't know he was an Uchiha."_ Saya thought to herself, but her thoughts were interrupted by Mea shouting down to Yuki.

"Come on, Yuki! I know you can win!" Mea shouted. Saya smiled and gave a soft chuckle, but also cheered her friend on as well.

"Ready? Begin!" The proctor announced as he quickly got out of the way. Itachi was the first one to make a move, Saya easily read his movements and knew that he was going to use a fireball jutsu, but Yuki also knew that as well and countered it with her own jutsu.

"Water style: water dragon jutsu!" Yuki called out as a water dragon hit the fire ball head on and continued towards Itachi. He quickly jumped out of the way at the last second, only to be met with a head on attack from Yuki. Saya growled in disapproval.

"That idiot! She knows that she close combat isn't her style!" Saya hissed.

"Saya, calm down. Just watch okay?" Mea said, her hand on Saya's shoulder. Saya only nodded and continued watching the match. Saya knew what was going to happen next and she closed her eyes in frustration as Itachi kicked Yuki in the stomach and sent her flying across the clearing. His kick was strong enough to knock Yuki out cold.

"The winner of the first match goes to Itachi Uchiha!" The proctor called as soon as he did, Saya jumped out onto the field and ran over to Yuki, who was getting up. Saya strode over to her and then she suddenly hit her upside the head and started yelling at her.

"Are you an idiot!? You know that close comabt isn't your style! So, why did you do it!?" Saya asked angrily.

"I just thought, if you and Mea can do close combat, maybe I could too. Sorry." Yuki said as Saya helped her off the ground. Saya sighed.

"Your such an idiot. You can stick with the fighting stlye that's best for you." Saya said as she helped Yuki into to infirmary, before rushing off the the stands again. The proctor called out the names for the second match and Saya thought that the match lasted about two hours, when it was only 30 minutes.

"The third match is Mea vs Tatsuya!" The proctor announced. As Mea started walking towards the stairs, Saya patted her on her shoulder and wished her luck, before she rushed out onto the field. When they both were on the field and facing each other, the proctor stepped back out of the way and the match started. Mea was the one that attacked first, she ran towards her opponent at top speed, surprising him, before jumping and kicking him in the head, sending him flying across the arena. But, Tatsuya quickly got his footing and took out some kunai with paper bombs and throwing them at Mea, but she easily and gracefully dodged all of them.

_"Mea doesn't really have a weakness, unless you count food as one, but I doubt anyone would have food on them during a fight." _Saya thought to herself with a small chuckle, unaware of Itachi approaching her as she leaned against the railing watching the fight.

"Your teammate is pretty strong." Itachi said, startling Saya slightly.

"Your right, but I am far stronger than everyone here." Saya said turning towards Itachi with a smirk. Itachi smiled and they both turned their attention back to the match as Mea swiftly punch her opponent, which knocked him out cold.

"The winner of the third match is Mea!" The proctor said as Mea jumped up and down with joy as she made her way back up to the stands, where Saya gave her a high five.

"Nicely done, Mea. Your as graceful as always." Saya said with a smile, which made Mea blushed slightly and smiled as well. Two more matches passed, when Saya's turn finally came. Yuki had also joined her friends again and both Mea and Yuki wished her good luck when her name was finally called out. Saya's opponent was a white-haired boy name Kabuto. Instead of using the stairs, Saya jumped over the railing and quickly walked over to the proctor, stretching. Within a few minutes, they were both facing each other.

"Ready? Begin!" The proctor said as he stepped back once more. Saya watched her opponent with a lazy attitude, which shocked most of the audience. She gave a small yawn, before she smirked and suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind Kabuto, surprising everyone.

"Don't worry. I try to hold back, but that probably won't matter very much." Saya said, still smirking, which sent a shiver up everyone's spine. Before Kabuto could do anything, Saya suddenly punch him and sent him flying into the arena wall, shocking everyone.

_"She's like a moster!"_

_"Maybe she's a demon!"_

_"No one alive should be that strong!"_

_"She's a demon-child!"_

_"She shouldn't be in this village with that kind of strength!"_

_"She may be a Kazami, but she's the only Kazami with the same strength of a demon!"_

_"Maybe she's cursed!"_ As Saya waited for Kabuto to stand up, she heard all these thoughts and they made her feel uneasy, but she forced herself to focus on the match, when suddenly, Kabuto shot towards her, but for her, he was really slow. All she had to do was step aside causing Kabuto's attack to completely miss her, but that didn't keep him from trying again, over and over, but each time, Saya got out of the way at the last second. When he attacked again, Saya kneed him in the stomach and then kicked the side of his head sending him flying across the arena again, when Kabuto tried to get up again, Saya quickly drew her sword and held it against his throat.

"It would be wise to quit now, while you still can." Saya said with a straight face. Kabuto growled and then raised up his hand.

"I forfeit." Kabuto said, as Saya put her sword up again and then holding her hand out to the other ninja with a smile. Kabuto only looked up at her in surprise, before taking her hand. Saya helped him back to his feet, as the proctor announced the winner of the last match.

"The winner of the last match is Saya Kazami! That concludes the chunin exams. Congradulations to all the winners. The 6 genin that have won the chunin exams will recieve their new headbands later in the hokage's office, whenever they get a chance." The proctor said as everyone started leaving the arena. As Saya started to leave the arena as well, Mea and Yuki ran to catch up with her.

"Saya, that was amazing! I didn't know you were so strong and scary!" Mea said cheerfully. Saya forced a smile, but her mind was still on the comments that she had heard from the villagers. As the three girls left the arena, they met up with Shiro, who happened to look proud of his students.

"Congradulations, you three. I'm very impressed." Shiro said.

"But, sensei, I didn't pass." Yuki said almost sadly.

"Yes, you did fail, but you also showed determination to win and that's all that matters. Your only mistake was trying to be like these two, but you should know that you have your own ways to fight. Anyway, tonight get a good night sleep and then tomorrow, I want to test Saya's strength. Meet me in the meadows by the forest again." Shiro said as he started walking away from the group. The girls looked at each other confused, but Saya was the only one that shrugged it off and started heading towards the hokage's office. Yuki and Mea said their good-bye's before walking home together. As they turned a corner of an empty street, Yuki quickly pulled Mea out of sight. Mea was about to ask what was going on, until she slightly saw Shiro and another man that was part of the akatsuki.

"Tomorrow, I'll test Saya's strength, if she's strong enough, I'll bring her to you." Shiro said. The other man only nodded before disappeared. Yuki and Mea hid in the shadows as Shiro also disappeared.

"Did you hear that?" Mea whispered and Yuki nodded.

"I have a bad feeling about this. For now, act like we don't know anything." Yuki said and Mea nodded as they quickly hurried home, unaware of Shiro and the man watching them as they quickly made their way home.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7: Unease and memories:**_

As Mea and Yuki started heading home, Saya was heading towards the hokage's office to recieve her new headband. As she walked down the village street, she could see that all the villagers were looking at her and whispering to each other. Saya only guessed that they were talking about her and her fight in the last exam. Saya only chose to ignore them, she didn't try to focus since she didn't want to hear the villagers thoughts about her being a demon child. With every second, Saya walked a little faster, until she was running towards the hokage's office. Once she reached the door, she stopped and waited a few second to caught her breath and regain her bearings before she knocked on the door.

"Come in." The hokage said from behind the door. The purple-eyed girl walked into the room with a fake smile on her face, not that anyone could tell.

"Good day, lord hokage." Saya said as she closed the door behind her and walked up to the hokage's desk that was covered in piles of paper that were on the left side of the desk and had four Chunin headbands on the right side of the desk. The middle of the desk only had one small pile of papers that the hokage was signing.

"Saya, good to see you. I was very impressed with your battled this afternoon. You are becoming very strong. You take your Kanna's appearance, but you have Hiro's strength. Your parents would be very proud of you." The hokage said with a smile. Saya smiled softly as well.

"I only wish they were here with me." Saya said.

"Their bodies may not be here, but their spirits will always be by your side, even in the toughest situation." The hokage said as he motioned for Saya to come closer to the desk and the young Chunin did just that. As Saya approached the desk, the hokage had grabbed on of the headbands and handed it to Saya.

"Thank you, lord hokage." Saya said as she took off her old headband off and setting it on the hokage's desk. That's when the hokage saw the scar on her neck. When he did see it, he sighed as he handed the headband to the purple-eyed girl.

"Saya, that scar on your neck, where did you get it?" The hokage asked as he watched the girl put the headband around her neck, covering the scar slightly. Saya looked at the hokage for a few seconds, until she finally realized what he was talking about, a slight blush was painted on her cheeks as she slightly gave a small laugh.

"You see, a few months ago, when we went on the escort mission for the Higurashi's, we were ambushed by a couple of bandits. They used a smoke bomb that reduced our ability to see. It was really strong too. It had us all coughing like crazy. Well, I was looking around for the others since we were all seperated. I guess I was farther from them than I thought. Anyway, one of the bandit came up behind me and knocked me out. When I woke up, I was in a dark room with a slightly broken window. Apparently, the bandits thought I Sena, at least until they looked at my eyes. When they questioned me, asking me where Sena was, I wouldn't answer them. I also was smiling at them, thinking that they were total idiots. Well, apparently one of the bandits didn't like my smile or my silence. I think the other guy called him Tatsuya. Anyway, he started kicking me, when he grabbed me again, I bit him. I remember knocking his feet out from under him and then sprinting towards the door. Well, the other bandit, Daisuke, I think, anyway he blocked the door, but I just jumped over them. By the way, they took my shoes and my hands were tied behind my back with chains. Well, anyway, I ran over thorns and sharp rocks. I kept running till I tripped over a stone. I thought I had lost them, but Tatsuya had caught up to me and grabbed my hair and pulled me to my feet. Then, my team came. I could see fury in my brother's eyes and when he tried to save me, Tatsuya pulled out a kunai knife and held it to my throat where the scar is. He made sure to cut my neck a little to make sure my brother stayed away." Saya said, as the hokage listened carefully to ach and every word Saya said.

"Oh my. That's quite a mission you went on. Anyway, tell me what else you remember." The hokage said and Saya nodded.

"The two bandits told the others that they would release me, if they gave Sena to them. Sena was going to give herself up to me, but I glared at her and told her not to or I would never forgive her. Then, I turned around and kicked Tatsuya in the stomach and he flung me near the edge of a cliff. He came over to me with anger in his eyes and grabbed my throat and held me up again. Kotaro tried to save me again, but Daisuke stopped him. I could barely breath, so I decided that I would bite him. So, I did, but that only made him release me and I fell over the edge and into the water below. Last thing I saw and heard was Kotaro jumping off the cliff after me, calling my name. I woke up three days later in my own room. Kotaro told me what happened when I was out cold." Saya said, finished with her story.

"You are very lucky to have a brother, who would do something so reckless as jumping off a cliff to go after his precious sister." The hokage said, giving Saya a bright smile. Saya smiled as well and nodded.

"I am. I'm glad I still have him with me as well as my friends along with Kilala too." Saya said as she noticed Kilala outside the hokage's window, wanting to be let in. Saya walked over to the window and opened it and let Kilala into the room before closing it again.

"Anyway, I should get home before my brother starts to wonder where I'm at." Saya said as she started leaving the room. The hokage said nothing as he watched Saya leave the room. Once the door was shut behind the girl, the hokage sighed.

_"I wonder how she will take it if she knew why she's so strong. The two-tails appears to like Saya's personality. Maybe Hiro was right to choose his daughter instead of his son." _The hokage thought as he sighed again.

Saya walked throught the village streets again, but decided to avoid the crowded streets and took the dark and empty streets as she walked home. The whole way back home, Saya could feel a pair of eyes following her every movement, which made her shudder and caused her to walked quicker as well. Saya quickly made it home and greeted her brother, who had set a plate of food on the table for her and filled Kilala's bowl again. After dinner, Saya quickly went up to her room, carrying Kilala in her arms, who was already fast asleep. The young Chunin set Kilala near her pillow before getting ready for bed and crawling in beside Kiala and quickly falling asleep, only to wake up almost every hour of the night to voices that belonged to the villagers. They called her all sorts of names. Soon enough, she cleared her mind of the memories and fell into a dreamless sleep.

When the young Chunin woke up, she realized that she was late for the meeting with her team. She quickly jumped out of bed, which scared poor Kilala, who had dashed under the bed. She came out from under the bed, when she finally realized that there was no danger. When she realized that Saya was dashing out the door, she quickly followed right behind. When Saya finally made it to the meadow, where Shiro and her friends were waiting impaitently for her. The young Chunin was out of breath by the time she caught up to them.

"Your late." Yuki stated with irritation in her voice.

"Sorry. I kinda overslept." Saya said with a small laugh as she stood up straight. The other two girls only sighed as Shiro shook his head.

"Your the only one left, violent grasshopper. Your friends have already sparred with me. Now, it's your turn." Shiro said. The young Chunin glared at Shiro, before nodding and taking a stance with her sword. The two of them fought for about an hour and a half. Saya also happened to be holding back agaisnt Shiro, but she was slowly losing her paitent, but it seemed that Shiro was enjoying the fight.

Steel clashed with steel, the sharp ringing sound echoed through the meadows and down to the forest. Hateful and impaitent purple eyes glared into amused silver eyes. Saya jumped away from Shiro and swung her sword towards the calm Jounin. Her teeth barred with frustration as Shiro ducked away and sent a few kunai at her. The purple-eyed girl easily dodged them and charged back at Shiro, sword ready to strike. Shiro's eyes widened as he found that he couldn't dodge the sword since his back was up against a tree trunk and Saya was too fast to be able to get out of the way in time. He put his arms up to protect his face from the deadly blow. But at the last second, Saya pulled back and jumped away from Shiro, who was panting slightly, while Saya was perfectly fine.

"I beat you, now I believe that means we're done for the day." Saya said with a smirk, her annoyance slowly disappearing. She looked over at Mea and Yuki for agreement and Mea giggled with amusement, while Yuki just nodded her head.

"See! We're getting stronger!" Mea said with a cheerful smile.

"Of course. You wouldn't be Chunin otherwise!" Yuki said with a grin.

"Don't worry, Yuki. I have faith in you. I just know you'll pass the next exam!" Mea replies cheerfully once again.

"Yeah, that is if you stick to your own fighting methods." Saya mumbled, but Yuki heard it and she nodded.

"I know. I'll stick with my own methods from now on." Yuki said.

"Once your a Chunin, we'll soon be out of Shiro's hands and we'll be Jounin!" Saya said with a grin. At the mention of their sensei, Mea and Yuki exchanged uncertain looks, but slowly nodded. Saya didn't notice their hesitation and motioned for her teammates to follow her. They did without complaint and the three were soon leaving the forest, their sensei watching them with narrowed eyes, which was soon followed by an evil smirk and an evil glint in his eyes.

"I assure you, you won't live that long." Shiro whispered to himself as he watched his students disappear. The three girls walked through the village streets without a care in the world, at least that's what it would seem. As Saya walked, she had trouble focusing and thoughts of the villagers flooded through her head and she was walking by her friends stiffly.

"I'll see you guys later, I just remember something I had to do." Saya said, wanting to get away quickly.

"Alright, we'll see you later." Yuki said, unaware of Saya's tense aura. With that, Saya started running in the opposite direction, waving to her friends as she went with a fake smile. When she was out of sight, she started running at full speed towards the village entrance. The purple-eyed girl managed to get pass the gatekeepers without a problem and kept running, until she nearly ran off a cliff with a slow moving river below. The young Chunin forced herself to take a deep breath before sitting on the ground at the edge of the cliff, her knees to her chest. She was alone. Not even Kilala was around, but she knew that Kilala was helping her brother, so it didn't bother her. After an hour or so, Saya was soon uncomfortable with the silence around her, even the birds remained silent, alerting her to an enemy nearby, but Saya didn't want to fight and alert the gatekeeper and get scolded later on by Kotaro for sneaking out of the village. So, Saya quickly got up and ran for the gate, sneaking back in with ease.

Once back in the village, the purple-eyed girl made her way down the village's empty side streets towards the ninja academy without realizing it, until she had gotten a little ways away from the building. The young Chunin sighed and walked over to a bench and sat down, feeling the wind blowing gently against her cheek. She sighed again and gently pulled her mother's hair ribbon out and tying it around her wrist, letting her hair fall to the middle of her back, the wind blowing her hair into her face, slightly. She sighed once more, before leaning back against the bench. She loved this area around the academy. It was always peacefully here and she loved it. As the young Chunin leaned back with her eyes closed, she heard laughter coming towards her. Without opening her eyes, Saya noted that the laughs belonged to at least three young children.

As the children passed, Saya opened her eyes and noted that the three children were the same ones she had run into before the third exam of the Chunin exams. Just by looking at they young girl with the dragon on her shoulder, Saya started to remember a time a couple years ago, where she first met the young girl. That's when Saya figured out that she had forgotten all about her as well.

_"Well, I wonder who I got the forgetfullness from." _Saya thought to herself as her mind drifted off into the past.

_**Flashback:**_

_**A young purple-eyed girl sat up in a tree, unaware of someone walking out into the backyard of her home. People she didn't know had come to celebrate her brother's birthday. Saya didn't like other people very much, so when they were around she would go outside to her favorite tree and stare up at the sky while she sang her mother's song. The younger girl on the ground just noticed her and was about to call out, when she suddenly heard Saya's voice.**_

_**"Deep in the meadow, under the willow. A bed of grass, a soft green pillow. Lay down your head and close your eyes. And when they open, the sun will rise." Saya sang in a low, but yet soothing voice. The young girl on the ground stared up at the black and red haired girl in the tree with amazement and carefully listened as she continued her song.**_

_**"Here it's safe, and here it's warm and here the daisies guard you from every harm. Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true. Here is the place where I love you." Saya sang towards the sky with a smile on her face, unaware of the girl on the ground listening. All she knew was that all the birds have fallen silent so they could listen to the girl's song.**_

_**"Deep in the meadow, hidden far away. A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam pray. Forget your woes and let you troubles lay. For when again it's morning, they'll wash away. Here it's safe and here it's warm and here the daisies guard you from every harm. Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true. Here is the place where I love you." Saya finished with a sigh. The young purple-eyed girl smiled and looked up as the birds started to sing her song with their own music, making Saya smile even more.**_

_**"Your voice is really pretty!" The girl on the ground called up, startling Saya and making her fall backwards out of the tree and into a bush below. The young girl with turquoise hair stared at the bush where Saya had fallen with wide eyes as Saya stood up and glared at her. The young girl laughed nervously before sprinting back into the house with Saya on her tail, easily gaining speed and easily catching up to her and pinning her to the ground.**_

_**"You should know better than to sneak up on people when they aren't paying attention." Saya said with a slight growl in her voice.**_

_**"Saya, get off of her and come here." Kotaro's voice said. They both looked up and saw Kotaro and another woman standing in the doorway looking down at the two.**_

_**"Che." Saya said, getting up on the young girl, who ran to the woman's side. Instead of walking over to her brother's side, Saya stood where she was the whole time.**_

_**"Nice to see you again, Saya. My, how you've grown." The woman said as she walked over to Saya and ruffled Saya's hair. Saya smiled slightly at the woman before bowing and heading upstairs. Saya could hear the woman and Kotaro talking as she went upstairs and into her bedroom, where Kilala laid sleeping on her bed.**_

_**End Flashback:**_

Saya sighed again and then she shivered as a strong gust of wind blew passed. That's when Saya got a gut feeling telling her that something bad was about to happen. With that, Saya got to her feet and started walking quickly back home. After a couple of minutes, Saya finally made it to her front door. Saya walked into her house and saw that Kotaro was home earlier than usual.

"Big brother?" Saya called out as she put her shoes next to her brother's and started walking into the living room, where Kotaro was reading one of her books she had left on the table.

"Welcome back, little devil." Kotaro sadi with a teasing smile. Saya crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at him before turning away from him.

"Anyway, why are you home so early?" Saya asked, turning back to her brother slightly.

"Saya, Do you want to do a mission with me in the morning?" Kotaro asked with a smile on his face as he set her book back down on the table in front of him. He stood and shoved his hands in his pockets, waiting for her answer.

**Author's note: I hope this doesn't kill ya, but here's a cliffhanger. I have to give some of the credit to FallenKunoichi, since I had writer's block for a minute or two, then idea's started popping into my head. If you guys have any idea's please let me know.**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8: Demostrations:**_

Saya looked at her brother for a moment with excitement in her purple eyes.

"Of course! What kind of mission is it?" The young Chunin asked excitedly. Kotaro smiled at his sister's reaction.

"For the mission, we'll be going to teach the young ninja at the academy. Iruka-sensei asked me if I wanted to teach them about Chakra control and weapons." Kotaro explained.

"I can teach the kids how to use certain types of weapons!" Saya said cheerfully.

"Yes, I know. So, you will do that and after that Iruka-sensei will take over and we can head home. Got it?" Kotaro asked as he started walking towards the kitchen. Saya followed behind her brother with a slight skip in her step.

"Yep!" Saya said as she sat down at the table, while she watched her brother start taking out pots and pans from the cupboards. As he started dinner for them, Kilala happily came trotting into the room and jumped into Saya's lap and curled up into a tiny ball. The young Chunin smiled down at her cat and started scratching behind her ears, which caused her to purr loudly, making Saya smile even more.

"Hey, Saya? Do you still have your Ocarina?" Kotaro suddenly asked.

"Yeah. It's right here in my pouch. Why?" Saya asked as she took her pouch and set it down on the table.

"I would love to hear Lugia's song again. Will you play it for me?" Kotaro asked, looking at his sister out of the corner of his eye.

"Sure. Don't blame me, if I mess up a note or two. I haven't played for a couple of years." Saya said as she took out a blue Ocarina and held the mouth piece in front of her and held it in both hands. Saya took a deep breath, before starting to play to Ocarina. A beautiful melody filled the kitchen and could be heard from outside and a house over. People who were passing by, stopped in front of the Kazami residance and listened to the beautiful music coming from the house. That night seemed to pass quickly for Saya and before she knew it, she was in her room fast asleep with Kilala at her side.

The next morning, Saya woke up to a ray of sunlight, streaming through her window. The purple-eyed girl, slowly sat up and stretched before she heard a knock on her door and then she heard her brother's voice behind the door.

"Saya, time to get up. Remember that mission that's today." Kotaro called through the door, before heading back downstairs. Saya smiled and jumped out of bed, quickly getting dressed and rushing downstairs after grabbing her sword by the door. Kilala followed close behind her. After breakfast, both Kotaro and Saya started for the academy. Kilala hitched a ride on Kotaro's shoulder as they went. That morning was very lively for the village. As they walked through the village streets, they were stopped by a baker, when he called out to Saya.

"Hey, Saya! Come here a second." The baker called out. Saya hesitated a second before jogging over to the baker.

"Is there something wrong?" Saya asked with a some worry in her eyes.

"Oh no! Nothing's wrong. I just wanted to ask you if you were the one playing the music last night." The baker said with a bright smile on his face.

"Yes. I was playing Lugia's song on my Ocarina. Sorry if I was being a bother." Saya said, turning her eyes to the ground.

"Oh no! You weren't a bother. You play beautifully. I enjoyed it." The baker said with a kind smile, although Saya could tell he really didn't want to be talking to her since she was a monster.

"Saya! Come on! We have to go!" Kotaro called to her. Saya turned to the baker and bowed before running after her brother. The two of them managed to make it to the academy a few seconds before the bell and quickly made their way down the hall towards Iruka-sensei's room. Kotaro opened the classroom door and stood there till Iruka noticed them. The classroom was very noisy and everyone was standing around laughing with each other. It didn't take, but a few seconds for Iruka-sensei to spot the two at the classroom door.

"Alright, class. Settle down. Today, we have a couple of guests here to teach you a few things." Iruka-sensei announced, motioning for the two of them to come inside and they did. Saya stood by the door, while Kotaro walked over to Iruka-sensei and said something to him that Saya couldn't hear before walking to the front of the room. Iruka-sensei walked over to Saya and stood beside her.

"Thank you for helping out today." Iruka-sensei said, before Saya could reply, the class started getting louder and louder.

"Hey! Isn't she the girl that fought in the Chunin exams?" A young boy asked.

"Will you teach me how to fight like that?" The boy called Naruto asked, standing up at his desk.

"Quiet down now! Naruto, Saya is here to teach you how to use different types of weapons. If you want her to teach you something else, you can ask her when you graduate." Iruka-sensei said and Naruto sat back down with a pout.

"Why do we have to learn about weapons? We already know everything about them." A black haired kid said.

"Sasuke..." Iruka-sensei started, but Saya put her hand up to stop him, before strolling over to him and leaning on his desk with a smile on her face.

"Well, it looks like there's a goodie-two shoes in the room. Why don't you behave yourself and listen to your peers." Saya said which made most of the kids giggle. Everyone except the girls, that is. Saya noticed them glaring at her as well.

"Oh? Looks like this kid has followers. Listen here! If you are a follower, then you have no right to be in this room. Stop being a follower and start leading. Otherwise, you will never get stronger than you are now! Following only means being weak and relying on your teammates. Take my advice. Because It's not worth the trouble." Saya lecture. The classroom remained silent as Saya walked back over to the side of the room. After a few more moments, Kotaro finally started his lecture on Chakra control that lasted about an hour and Saya could see that the kids were falling asleep.

"Alright. I think that's enough from you, big brother." Saya said as she pushed him slightly out of the way. Kotaro huffed, but walked over to the side of the room anyway. The purple-eyed girl looked at the class and saw that many of them were fast asleep and Saya smirked, before lifting her weapon off her back and slamming it on one of the desks, which made a very loud bang. All the sleeping ninja woke up with a start and looked at Saya like she was crazy. Which she was a little bit.

"Instead of telling you about certain types of weapons, I'm going to show you instead. That way, you can't fall asleep. Come on, everyone outside." Saya said in a loud voice, before heading out to the small practice area of the academy. The kids followed close behind her with Kotaro and Iruka-sensei taking up the rear.

"What are you going to show us and how?" A pink haired kunoichi asked, standing beside Sasuke, who looked really irritated.

"I want one of you to pick a weapon for me and I will show you a trick for it." Saya said with a sweet smile. At that, Zero stepped forward with her sickle and chain, holding it out to Saya.

"Can you show me something with my sickle and chain?" Zero asked. Saya nodded and took the weapon and carefully examined it. Zero stepped back away from Saya. With the weapon in hand, she did a couple of hand signs, before water started flowing around the whole weapon and her hands. Saya spun the weapon in her hand before throwing the sickle at the training dummy. The sickle missed, but the water made a bigger blade out of the sickle and cut the dummy in half. The young Chunin caught the sickle with ease before turning back to the class.

"If you have water jutsu, you can manipulate the water around the blade, even if you miss your opponent, you can control the water and make the blade bigger than before and it will garuntee you hit your target, even if you miss him just barely." Saya said as she handed back the weapon to Zero. The next one to speak up was Sasuke.

"Why don't you show us something with your own blade?" Sasuke asked with an irritated voice. Saya smiled and pulled her blade off her back and took a fighting stance. She focused her chakra on her blade and her blade, with enough chakra, became even sharper than before. Saya spun around and slashed at the training dummy with out moving an inch, sending a chakra blade towards the dummy. The blast was powerful enough to fill the whole area with dust and when the dust settled, Saya had destroyed almost the whole fence behind the dummy, which no longer existed.

"Cool! Show us something with some throwing stars!" Naruto said with a little too much excitement. Naruto grabbed some throwing stars out of his pouch. Naruto started running towards Saya and accidently tripped, throwing the stars at Saya. But, Saya easily caught them with her eyes closed and the whole class stared at her in awe.

"Awesome! I want to do that!" Kasumi said loudly.

"Maybe when your a little older." Saya said in a soft voice, but enough for Kasumi to hear her as she turned back to another training dummy. Examining the dummy for a moment, Saya turns to her brother and gives him a sweet smile.

"Big brother? Do me a favor please. Can you create a clone for me. I need to save enough chakra for the demostrations." Saya said. Kotaro nodded before creatinf hand signs for the clone jutsu, successfully creating a clone of himself.

"Alright, I think this demostration would be easy if the opponent was able to move." Saya said, taking a fighting stance with the throwing stars between her fingers. The clone charged towards her with a kunai in hand and as she got closer she ducked out of striking range and ran up the fence before doing a backflip. She let loose all the throwing stars in different directions, but they all bounced off an object and went straight for their target. They hit their target directly as Saya landed on her feet behind the clone as it disappeared into smoke.

"Awesome! You didn't even need chakra to be able to scale the fence!" A young boy said with amazement.

"Alright, it's getting late, so we would have time for one more weapon demostration." Saya said as she looked around at the children in front of her. As her purple eyes scanned the kids, Kasumi stepped forward, while taking her Katana out and pointing it at Saya, barely missing her.

"Can you show a trick with my Katana?" Kasumi asked with puppy-dog eyes. Saya nodded and reached out for the Katana, but instantly pulled her hand back when it become numb. Kasumi and the rest of the class stared at her, waiting for her to begin. When Saya felt the kids' eyes on her, she almost instantly grabbed the Katana and stabbed into the ground and did some hand signs for a lightning jutsu.

"Lightning style: Lightning Chidori!" Saya said as she grabbed the Katana again. As soon as she grabbed it, the numbness in her hand, spread to her forearm, but she ignored it and made the chidori spread through the blade. She did a quick spin and slashed at the new training dummy, and sent another chakra blade at it, but this time it didn't stop at the fence. It had destroyed a few trees beyond it and left a huge mess, but no one was paying attention to it. They were paying attention to Saya's arm, which was trembling from the numbness and bleeding badly. But, Saya didn't notice the blood, until her brother pointed it out.

"Saya! Your bleeding!" Kotaro said with worry in his voice as he approached his sister. Almost instantly, Saya could feel the pain shoot through her veins and she fell to her knees holding her arm with the Katana by her side on the ground. Kotaro was at her side instantly.

"Come on. Let me see your arm." Kotaro commanded, but Saya only shook her head and stood up, grabbing the Katana and walking over to Kasumi and giving it back to her.

"I suggest that you don't use that move until you know how to control it's power." Saya said as she turned and walked out of the academy yard, heading for her home. Kotaro spoke with Iruka-sensei before turning to catch up with his sister.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9: Tragedy strikes:**_

Saya walked quickly down the village streets, holding her arm that was still bleeding a little bit as Kotaro ran to catch up with her. As soon as Saya and Kotaro started to leave the academy, everyone quickly went back inside to grab their stuff since the lessons took the whole day. Kasumi and Naruto were following behind them since they lived the same way Kotaro and Saya were going. They were happily chatting when, Kasumi heard crying coming from her house. Saya finally slowed down and stopped when she heard the crying and then all of a sudden, she saw Kasumi go insane and running in circles.

"Maya! What do I do!? My brother's crying!" Kasumi shouted, which caused a middle-age kunoichi next door to come outside and just sigh when she saw Kasumi. Then, her eyes landed on Saya.

"Saya, be a dear and calm the baby down, won't you?" The woman, Maya, asked with a tired voice as she stopped Kasumi from running in circles a second longer.

"Of course, Maya-chan." Saya said as she ran into the house. It only took a second or two to find the room where the baby was. As soon as she found him, she picked him up without getting any blood on him and held him her arms.

"Shh. It's alright. Don't cry." Saya whispered to the baby, but he only continued crying. Saya sighed and sat down in the rocking chair by the crib.

"Alright, fine. Be that way." Saya said, before taking a deep breath. Then, Saya started rocking him, while humming her mother's song, which calmed the baby down some. When he was calm enough, she walked downstairs into the kitchen, still humming her mother's song. She found a baby bottle and all the supplies to make the little one a bottle. After the baby was finished, he was instantly fast asleep once more. When Saya turned around, Maya, Kotaro, Naruto, and Kasumi were standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Naruto and Kasumi looked at Saya in awe, while Maya and Kotaro just smiled.

"Saya, will you do me one more favor?" Maya asked as she approached Saya.

"Of course. What is it?" Saya asked, keeping her voice low enough to be heard, but soft enough to not wake up the baby in her arms.

"I have to go on a mission, I'll be back later today, but Kasumi here doesn't know how to take care of a baby. I was wondering if you can look after them till I get back or their mother." Maya said.

"Of course. You can count on me." Saya said with a smile. Maya smiled and bowed her head, before leaving the house quickly. The other's watched her go from the doorway. Their attention was taken by the baby when he started to move around in Saya's arms, but had not yet, made a sound. After a few more second, the young Chunin finally turned towards the teal haired girl.

"You'll be coming to my house, alright. So, can you grab your little brother's stuff for me?" Saya asked. Kasumi nodded and quickly ran back inside to gather all the stuff. When she disappeared inside the house, Kotaro turned towards Naruto and smiled.

"Would you like to come to our house as well? You can stay for dinner." Kotaro said, which made Naruto's face brighten and he nodded as Kasumi came back out with the baby bag.

"Alright, let's go now." Saya said as she lead the small group down the village streets with the baby in her arms. When they all got to the Kazami residence, Naruto stared in amazement at how big the house was, before following them inside. The young Chunin sat down on the couch, rocking the baby. The baby in Saya's arms woke up a couple of times, but he was relaxed when he was in her arms. As the purple-eyed girl, watched her brother and the other two guests play a board game, she started to notice, the baby in her arms beginning to wake up again. As soon as the baby saw Saya, he started to laugh, surprising everyone in the room.

"Looks like baby Takashi likes you." Kasumi said with a small laugh. Kotaro gave a small laugh as well, as Saya smiled down at Takashi. As the other's continued playing board games for a few hours, Saya was sitting on the couch with Takashi in one arm and a book in the other. Baby Takashi was a little busy playing with Saya's hair to notice anything else. Everyone was enjoying themselves when there was a knock at the door. Kotaro got up and walked into the hallway. When Kotaro opened the front door, he saw Kasumi's parents Natsumi and Arashi standing there.

"Natsumi, Arashi. It's nice to see you again." Kotaro said, welcoming them inside. They smiled and took there shoes off at the door before walking into the living room with Kotaro.

"It has been awhile. Saya, it's good to see you. You've grown so much since I last saw you." Arashi said with a smile as Saya stood up after putting her book down. Takashi was still pulling at the young Chunin's hair, causing Natsumi to giggle and Arashi to smile.

"It have been awhile. Two years I believe." Saya said as she tried to hand Takashi to his mother, but he wouldn't allow that if he couldn't help it. As Saya handed him over, Takashi started to cry. Natsumi handed him back to Saya and he stopped crying. Everyone slightly smiled with amusement.

"Oh my. Takashi seems to have taken a liking to you." Natsumi said with an amused laugh.

"I guess so." Saya said as she tries to get her hair away from Takashi, who was now pulling her hair.

"Maybe you guys would like to stay for dinner, since Takashi doesn't want to part with Saya just yet." Kotaro suggested. Natsumi and Arashi hesitated a moment before finally nodding and setting their things done beside their shoes. Natsumi, Kasumi, and Kotaro walked into the kitchen and all three of them worked on dinner together, while Naruto, Saya, and Arashi sat out in the living room chatting. After awhile, they had all finished with their dinner and that's when Saya noticed that Takashi had fallen asleep again in her arms.

"You know, I bet you would become a great mother one day, Saya. Anyway, thank you for taking care of these two." Natsumi said as she took Takashi from Saya after grabbing her stuff and putting her shoes on. Saya smiled at them and nodded and waved as they disappeared down the street with Naruto and Kasumi behind them chatting away.

"Saya, It's getting late. You should start heading to bed." Kotaro called from inside the house.

"Alright!" Saya called back to him, disappearing inside the house, closing and locking the door behind her. She said good night before heading upstairs, exhausted from earlier and plopped down on the bed, becoming comfortable before drifting off into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile, a little ways from the leaf village, in the forest, a scream could be hear, before just suddenly being cut off. In the forest and in a clearing, Mea was kneeling over Yuki with tears in her eyes. Yuki was covered in blood from her throat and her stomach. A deep laugh was heard from the other side of the clearing, making Mea jump to her feet with her kunai's in hand and hatred in her eyes.

"You traitor!" Mea screeched before charging at two dark figures on the other side of the clearing. Another deep laugh was heard, before one of the dark figures rushed forward with the same speed as Mea and blocked her attack with their own kunai.

"That girl needs to learn a lesson. Never leave your friends alone if your a target." A male voice said. Without warning, the figure pushed Mea back and stepped forward into the moonlight of the full moon. His face was hidden, but Mea could easily see his smirk behind his hood. He wore an akatsuki coat. He was an akatsuki. Mea growled at him, her hatred growing. Then, suddenly the cloaked figure rushed forwards with a burst of speed and grabbed Mea's throat and pinning her against a tree, tightening his grip on her throat.

"W-who are y-you after?" Mea demanded with a gasp as she tried to breathe.

"I guess I can tell you since your just going to die anyway." The cloaked man said with a smirk that widened even more.

"You see, I'm after a certain girl with incredible power. I think her name was Saya Kazami, was it not?" The man said with another deep laugh. The man loosened his grip on Mea's neck for a few moments, allowing her to ask anymore questions.

"Why are you after Saya?" Mea asked, her eyes glaring at the man pinning her to the tree as she slowly moved one of her hands into her weapon pouch.

"Saya has two rare powers inside her and an incredible force sealed within her. The power in her eyes: Dokushinjutsu. The power to read minds. The other power within her crescent moon tattoos: Mikadzuki chiyu. The power to heal the dead. And last, but not least. The beast sealed within her body since the age of 5: The two-tailed cat. One of the legendary tailed beasts. That is the only reason she is strong, because her power is combined with the tailed beast." The cloaked man said with another deep laugh. But, he didn't notice that Mea had pulled out a kunai knife when he was distracted, until it was too late. Mea quickly stabbed the man's hand and he pulled back with a hiss, pulling the kunai out of his hand and grabbing Mea again, before she got the chance to run. The cloaked man grabbed Mea by her hair and held her up and using her kunai, he quickly slit her throat and dropping her to the ground. Mea suffered for a few moments before her breathing finally stopped. The cloak man didn't notice her lips moving before she died or the tiny tear that slid down her face. The one word she had said was a warning and a good bye. The word Mea had said was: Saya.

The cloaked man sighed and walked back over to the other figure still standing in the shadows, watching the whole thing.

"Little brother, return to the village quickly. The ANBU are going to be here soon. Report any updates to me right away." The cloaked man said as he walked by the other man.

"Of course." A familiar voice said with a small laugh, before both figures disappeared from the clearing. A few seconds after they left, the ANBU arrived and took in the scene with horror and dread.

"Kakashi, go tell Kotaro, Saya, and Shiro about this quickly. Miki, go to the hokage right this second and tell him what has happened." One of the ANBU order. Two others nodded before running back to the village.

Kotaro was walking out of the kitchen, shutting the light off as he went, when someone knocked on the front door. Kotaro quickly went to the front door and opened it. He was clearly surprised to see a white-haired man with a mask covering his face standing on his doorstep.

"Kakashi, what an unexpected surprise. What brings you here this late?" Kotaro asked as he stepped outside, closing the door behind him. The man standing in front of his took his mask off to reveal another mask that covered his mouth and nose and a scar over one of his eyes, which were filled with sorrow and regret.

"Kotaro, is your sister awake?" Kakashi asked with a serious tone that made Kotaro become serious as well.

"No. She fell asleep awhile ago. Tell me, what's going on?" Kotaro said in a low, serious voice.

"Just a few minutes ago, the ANBU found two bodies in the forest not to far from the village." Kakashi informed.

"Who were they?" Kotaro asked. Kakashi hesitated for a second, but sighed and looked Kotaro dead in the eye.

"Mea and Yuki. They both were found dead. Both of them had their throats slit, but Yuki had a wound on her stomach and Mea looked like someone had choked her before killing her." Kakashi said. Kotaro's eyes widened and he leaned against the front door of his house, his right hand over his eyes and sliding over his mouth.

"Thank you, Kakashi. Is there anything else?" Kotaro asked in a low voice that sounded like he was about to cry. Kakashi shook his head, sorrow filling his eyes.

"The funeral with be in the morning tomorrow and their names will be carved on the KIA stone. I'm truly sorry, Kotaro." Kakashi said with a slight bow as he put his mask back on and ran off down the street again. Kotaro waited until he was out of sight before walking back inside. As soon as he stepped into the living room, he looked up at Saya's door and his eyes were filled with sorrow and regret for having to tell Saya about her friends. He just hoped that she wouldn't hit him or he'd end up with some broken bones. Kotaro sighed before silently making his way up the stairs and into Saya's room. When he entered her room, he saw that she was curled up into a ball with Kilala laying beside her head. He watched for a few moments how her chest rose and fell with each steady breath she took in her sleep. She looked very peaceful sleeping, almost innocent, but everyone knew she wasn't as innocent as they thought she might be at first glance. Kotaro sighed sadly, before slowly making his way over to Saya's bedside. He gently shook Saya's shoulders until she finally opened her eyes slowly.

Saya's eyes practically glowed in the moonlight flowing through her bedroom window. Saya sat up slowly and rubbed her tired eyes, her hair slightly falling into her face as she stared at her brother.

"Big brother? What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Saya asked. It was true, Kotaro had silent tears running down his cheeks.

"Saya, I'm so sorry..." Kotaro said as he sat on the edge of her bed.

"For what?" Saya asked as she crawled over to him. Kotaro covered his face with one of his hands and slightly shook his head.

"Your friends were found dead a few minutes ago by the ANBU. Kakashi came by a couple minutes ago and told me. I'm so sorry, little sis." Kotaro said with sorrow in his voice. The young Chunin stared at her brother in shock for a few moments, before the new information finally sunk in and tears started to form in her eyes, but she tried not to let them fall.

"It can't be... They can't be dead. Mea and Yuki are skilled Chunin. H-how are they dead?" Saya asked as her voice cracked slightly. Kotaro only shook his head and stayed silent, his head in his hand.

"Kotaro. How did they die?" Saya asked with a little more sternness in her voice that made Kotaro raise his head at the sound of his name coming from his sister, who usually only called him 'big brother'. He looked straight into his sister's eyes for a few seconds, before finally sighing and putting his head back in his hands again. Kotaro felt Saya's hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down enough for him to speak to her and it helped.

"Kakashi said that Yuki died from a stomach wound and from her throat being slit. Mea showed signs of being choked, but that wasn't what killed her. Her throught was also slit as well. I'm really sorry, Saya." Kotaro said, his voice almost in a whisper. That's when Kilala decided it was her turn to comfort Kotaro. So, she stood up from her spot on Saya's pillow and crawled into Kotaro's lap and rubbing against his hand. Kotaro looked down at Kilala and started petting her behind the ear, making her purr softly. Then, he looked at Saya from the corner of his eyes, to see her just sitting there, trying to hold her tears in that threaten to flow over. Kotaro set Kilala aside and moved closer to his sister and pulled her closer to him. A few moments after her head hit his chest, she started to cry silently, unable to hold the tears back any longer.

"Why d-did they h-have to g-go and d-die?" Saya said with a quiet sob. Kotaro held her close as if she was the one dying as her shoulder trembled with the tears that flowed down her face.

"I'm really sorry, little sis. Their funeral will be held in the morning and then their names will be carved into the KIA stone. Please, try to get some more sleep. I'll come to wake you up in the morning." Kotaro said after awhile, once Saya had finally stopped crying. Saya didn't say anything, only nodded her head as she release her brother and fell back onto her pillow, staring up at the full moon with no more emotion showing in her eyes. Kotaro walked over to the bedroom door and turned back to look at his sister one more time, before leaving the room, closing the door behind him. A few minutes after Kotaro left the room, Saya fell asleep into a world of her memories of her friends. The first friends she ever made after her parents died.

_**Flashback:**_

_Since young Saya started school at the ninja academy, she avoided talking with the other students, because she wouldn't know what to say to them. Since she left them alone, theu also left her alone as well. At that, Saya was disappointed. She really wanted a friend, even though she still had her brother and her family, along with Kilala as well. That day, before she left for school, a shinobi, a friend of her father's had come to give them some news. Young Kotaro and young Saya stood in front of the shinobi outside their house, already for schooll that day. The young girl, noticed the sorrow in the man's eyes, but she wanted for him to speak before she said anything, that is what her mother had taught her._

_"Kotaro, Saya, I'm really sorry, but your parents were killed during the mission. Their funeral will be tomorrow and then their names will be carved into the KIA stone. Again, I'm really sorry." The shinobi said, before he walked away from us. Young Saya stood there holding Kilala with tears silently flowing down her face. Then, without warning, the young girl fell to her knees, crying softly to herself as she held her cat close to her chest. Kotaro bent down and hugged his little sister, with tears sliently flowing down his face as well. After awhile, they both finally stopped crying and went back into their house to clean up before heading off to school, not caring if their going to be late or not._

_Outside her classroom, the young girl set Kilala down and slowly opened to door before walking into the room, not caring if all the students stared at her or not. As she closed the door behind her, she felt a hand on her shoulder and then she heard Iruka-sensei's soft voice._

_"Saya, youn didn't have to show up today, with everything that happened. You can go home if you want." Iruka-sensei said with a sad smile. Saya turned towards him and put a fake smile on her face._

_"It's alright. I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Saya said soflty as she walked towards her seat with her bangs hiding her eyes from view. Not wanting to be near anyone, Saya sat at the back of the class and barely listened to any of the lectures. No one seemed to notice, except two girl sitting a couple of seats in front of her. The looked at each other and nodded their heads. When the lunch bell finally rang, Saya stayed where she was and once everyone left the room the two girl got up from their seats and one of them sat directly in front of her, while the other one sat beside her. Saya was confused by this and looked at both girl in confusion._

_"Hi there! My name's Mea. It's nice to meet you." The girl beside her said cheerfully with a bright smile on her face._

_"And my name's Yuki. It's nice to meet you. What's your name?" The girl in front of her asked more calmly then her friend. Saya hesitated for a moment before finally speaking soflty._

_"I'm Saya Kazami." She said in a soft voice, but the girls heard it and they smiled at her._

_"Nice to meet you Saya. From now on, we're all going to be the best of friends." Mea said cheerfully again._

_"Anyway, why are you so sad?" Yuki asked in a calming voice that made Saya relax somewhat. Saya hesitated once more, before putting her head on the desk._

_"My parents went on a mission and they promised me that they would come back, but this morning someone told me and my brother that they died on the mission." Saya said, silently crying again. Mea and Yuki smiled sadly, but they talked with Saya the whole lunch period and calming her down. Since then, all three of them have been the closest friends for a long time._

_**End of flashback:**_

When Saya woke up again, she heard Kotaro's voice from the other side of her door telling her to wake up and get ready. But, he didn't say get readt for what, but Saya knew what she had to get ready for anyway, so it didn't matter if he told her or not. The young Chunin slowly got out of bed and waked over to her dresser, pulling out a black, sleeveless dress and slowly put in on. After she got dressed, she didn't bother putting her hair ribbon in her hair as she made her way to the front door, where her brother was waiting. Saya put her shoes on and followed Kotaro out the door. They both never said a word the whole time. As the morning went on, dark storm clouds started rolling in. When the shinobi carved her friends name into the stone that day, Saya saw Shiro out of the corner of her eye, and to her it looked like he was smiling.

After Mea and Yuki's names were carved into the stone, everyone started heading home, all except Saya and Shiro. Saya had told Kotaro that she would caught up with him later. So now, here she was standing in front of the stone staring at the names of her friends. She could sense that Shiro was walking towards her from behind.

"You know, if you watched your friends a little more, maybe they would still be alive." Shiro said as if it was her fault.

"Bastard. I will find out if you were invovled with their deaths and when I do, I will kill you personally." Saya snarled as she turned and started walking past him back towards her house. What she didn't notice was the smirk that made it's way onto Shiro's face as he watched her walk away.

"We'll see about that. You have no idea, what's in store for you." Shiro said in a low voice with a small laugh, before heading off somewhere unknown. As Saya walked back home, it started to rain on her, but she didn't even mind it at all. She stopped walking and looked up at the sky. She was alone. Mea and Yuki were dead. Her parents are dead. Itachi was no where to be found. Kotaro was busy with missions.

_"I don't know anymore. Maybe, I don't belong here. Everyone seems to think so. Maybe I can get the hokage to give me solo missions." _Saya thought to herself as she continued walking home.

**A/N: Hey everyone. Sorry for another cliffhanger. I think. But, I just wanted to tell you guys that Saya has already met Tsunade and Jiraya. Both Tsunade and herself are best friends. I was going to write a memory about it, but I got to lazy about it, so I'll just tell you. Saya and Kotaro went on a mission when their parents were still alive, with the hokage and Tsunade, and Jiraya, along with her parents of course. But, Saya finds herself lost and Tsunade finds her and all that. So yeah. They're both great friends. Thank you and enjoy reading!**


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10: The first solo mission and memories of a friend:**_

That night, Saya walked home through the rain slowly. As she walked, people she passed started to notice the emotionless eyes of the girl who has felt sorrow once before and they pitied her. Once the young Chunin got back home, she was standing in the hallway, dripping wet as she took her shoes off. When Kotaro came into the hallway, he had a towel in his hand and a sad look in his eyes and he was still in his funeral clothing. Kotaro walked over to Saya and started to dry her hair for her. She never even protested like she normally would. They both remained silent the rest of the day. Even Kilala didn't bother to disturb the tense silent in the house as the rain pounded on the roof and lightning flashed in the sky. The thunder, was not even heard by those who were mourning for their friends and family.

The next morning was a little better. Saya and Kotaro talked very little during breakfast, before going their seperate ways for the day. The young Chunin girl found herself walking down the village streets, staring up at the bright blue sky without a cloud in sight.

As Saya walked down the village street, staring up at the sky as she went, she suddenly heard someone approaching her. When she looked over her shoulder, she saw that it was Kasumi, who was also dragging a young girl behind her.

"Don't worry, I may not be able to leave the village yet, so I can't take you home, but she can!" Kasumi said as she pushed the young girl's shoulders in the direction of Saya. The young Chunin only blinked at her as the child stared up at her with excitement. Before she knew it, Kasumi had ran off leaving the child with her. Saya sighed before she knelt down in front of the girl.

"Is there something I can do for you, young one?" Saya asked in a sweet voice.

"Can you take me back to my home village?" The young girl asked and Saya smiled and nodded.

"Of course. Where is your village?" Saya asked.

"Past the Suna village, in the mountains." The young girl said with a bright smile and Saya could only stare at her in shock.

"T-that's quite far from the leaf village. How did you get here in the first place?" Saya asked, still a little shocked.

"I got seperated from my parents and they told me that if I ever got lost, to just return home and wait for them, but I can't go home by myself. I'm not strong enough." The young girl said as her eyes started to show sorrow. The sorrow in the girl's eyes, reminded Saya of how weak she felt when her parents and her teammates died. Saya's eyes softened and she quickly stood up, taking the young girl's hand in her own.

"Come on then. I'll be happy to help you. Don't you worry." Saya said with a sweet smile on her face and for once, her smile was a real one.

"Thank you, miss. But, I have to warn you. It'll take about a week to get to the mountain and from there I have to go alone. People from other villages are not allowed to enter the mountain village no matter what." The young girl said.

"That's alright. I'll send Kilala with you and wait for her to return before heading back." Saya said as she walked to the village gates with the girl by her side. As they approached the village gate, they were stopped by the gatekeeper.

"Yo! Saya, long time no see." The gatekeeper said with a wave and Saya waved back at him with a small smile that was between fake and a real smile.

"It's been awhile, Izaya. Can you do me a favor and tell the hokage I'll be gone for a week or more. I'm returning this girl back to her own village." Saya said as she walked past him. He nodded and took off towards the hokage's office as Saya croutched down in front of the girl.

"Come on. It will be faster this way." Saya said with another smile. The girl nodded and climbed onto Saya's back and put her arms around Saya's neck tightly, just not too tightly that she was choking her. As soon as the young girl was on, Saya stood off and took off into the trees as an incredible speed that somewhat surprised the young girl, then she noticed that a giant two-tailed cat was FLYING beside them.

"How is that cat flying!?" The young girl asked with surprise in her voice. Saya looked over at Kilala through the corner of her eye and she silently giggled to herself.

"That's one of her abilities. Kilala is able to transform into that form from being a regular cat with two-tails and she's able to fly and control fire. But, her bite is also one of her specialties." Saya said as she continues jumping from tree to tree, without breaking a sweat. The young girl only stared at Kilala in awe and Saya tried to focus her mind reading powers on the young girl, but she was really confused when she couldn't hear the girl's thoughts, and got a huge migraine instead. Kilala somehow noticed the slight grimace Saya had, when she tried to read the girl's mind and she roared at her in concern.

"It's alright, Kilala, I'm alright." Saya said with one of her famous fake smiles that she seemed to give more than her real ones. Kilala watched her mistress with concern as they ran towards the sand village border in silence.

As they moved they had made it to a small village as the sun went down and Saya decided that they could stay there for the night, since she was stupid enough to forget to pack some stuff and her sword. By the time, they got inside the village, the young girl had fallen asleep, so Saya made her way to a small inn and requested a room for them. After getting a room, Saya laid the young girl on one of the beds before she walked over to the balcony that came with their room and stepping out into the cool night air. As the young Chunin leaned against the balcony, Kilala, in her normal form, came outside and jumped on the railing and stared at her mistress with her blood red eyes.

"This is going to be one heck of a week, don't you think?" Saya asked as she reached out and stroked Kilala behind the ears. Kilala mewed at her before purring and leaning into Saya's hand, which made her give a small laugh of amusement. After awhile, Kilala fianlly went back inside and curled up next to the young girl. The young Chunin watched them for a moment before turning back and holding up her hand with Itachi's ring on her pointer finger up to the moon and looked at it with a sigh.

"I wonder where he went. I haven't seen him for a long time. Maybe he's busy with missions?" Saya said quietly to herself, before finally deciding to go back inside and go to bed. It took a few hours, but after awhile Saya finally fell into a deep sleep that was filled with memories of the past.

_**The dream:**_

_**Saya stood in the middle of a clearing surrounded by tall oak trees with leaves that were the brightest green she's ever seen. The grass and the flowers around her were also bright. Saya noticed that the sun was also really bright and she also noticed that she was standing under a bright cherry-blossom tree that had the brightest and the biggest cheery-blossoms that were in full bloom. She stared up at the beautiful tree and she realized that this place felt a little familiar to her, but she couldn't remember where she saw this place before. **_

_**"This place... Why is it so familiar?' Saya thought to herself as she looked around. The young Chunin finally noticed that she wasn't wearing her previous clothing. She was now wearing a short black kimono with long sleeves. The kimono had red claw mark designs on it and she also noticed that her long hair was down. She didn't even realize that her hair went down to her knees till now, but she also didn't want to cut her hair anytime soon. She wore her black flat shoes as well.**_

_**As Saya looked around the clearing, a small breeze blew by and blew a few flower petals around her body. Saya reached up as her bangs went into her face and put her hair behind her ear and held it there till the wind stopped, before dropping them back to her side. As she stood under the tree, a invisible force, started to push her forward towards the trees and without realizing it at first, Saya found herself walking towards the trees rather quickly. Before she knew it, the young Chunin found herself in a clearing that felt strangely familiar, but what she saw before her. Before her, standing in the middle of the clearing, looking around was a young girl with medium lengthed black and red hair and scared purple eyes.**_

_**'T-that me, when I was younger!' Saya thought to herself as the girl quickly spun around looking for something. This young Saya was no more than 4 years old.**_

_**"Mama, Papa, big brother? Where did you go?" The young girl said in a scared voice as she searched around her surroundings. The young Saya looked like she was about to cry. At that moment, Saya remembered exactly what happened that day. Without realizing it, Saya stood there, staring at the girl in front of her with sorrow in her eyes as she touched the back of her neck, feeling an old scar that was well hidden beneath her hair. As Saya remembered what had happened to her, her eyes instantly went to the trees behind the young girl, as two rouge ninja entered the clearing. One of the ninja, who was laughing, stepped on a twig snapping it in half and alerting the younger Saya instantly. The young girl quickly whirled around and stared at the two ninja with fear in her eyes. The young girl seemed to have frozen on the spot when she looked straight into the ninja's eyes.**_

_**'Why didn't I run that time?' Saya thought to herself as she tried not to watched her past, but she couldn't peel her eyes away from the scene in front of her as the two ninja noticed the younger one and sneered at her, before one of them walked over to her with a kunai in his hand. The young girl took a step back with each step the man took until she was pinned against a tree with nowhere else to run. The young girl, stared at the man before her as he kneeled down in front of her with a smirk on his face.**_

_**"Hey, Shima. Look at this girl. She may be young, but she could still be of use to us." The ninja said as he watched the girl shake with fear.**_

_**"You're right. Let's take her with us. Make sure to put our mark on her first, Naga." The ninja called Shima said.**_

_**"Of course." Naga said with another smirk that made the young girl shake even more. The ninja known as Naga reached for the young girl, making her flinch away, and grabbed her hair, before cutting some of it off. Now the young girl's hair was just above her shoulders. Before the young girl knew what was happening, she was pinned to the ground on her stomach. As the young girl registered what had happened, Naga had taken his kunai and started to carve a music note on the back of her neck. He had carved deep enough to make sure that the mark would leave a scar. The young girl screamed as loud as she could, before she started crying from the pain. She felt the man stand up, before feeling his hand on the collar of her shirt and started to lift her up from the ground. The fear the young girl felt then, renewed her energy and she instantly started thrashing around in his grip, making it harder to handle her.**_

_**"Let go of me!" The young girl screamed. Then, all of a sudden, the young girl was released and fell to the ground with a small thud. When she looked up again, she saw a kunoichi in front of her with blonde hair that was in two pony-tails. Her back was facing the young girl, but Saya could tell that the woman was pissed off from the aura she let off. The two ninja from before seemed to have known who she was and started backing away with fear, before turning around and running for the hills.**_

_**Saya stood there with a smile on her face as she remembered who the young woman in front of her younger self was.**_

_**'Tsunade...' Saya thought to herself with another smile on her face as she remembered her old friend. Tsunade, after the two ninja had run off, turned to the young girl with a caring aura around her as she kneeled in front of her with a small smile.**_

_**"Are you alright?" Tsunade asked in a concerned voice. The young girl was speechless as she stared at the young woman before her, so she only nodded her head in response. That's when she felt a slight pain in the back if her neck and she winced in pain. Tsunade noticed and turned her back towards her and looked at her neck. Tsunade instantly took out some bandages and carefully bandaged the young girl's neck.**_

_**"My name is Tsunade. Don't worry, I'm also from the hidden leaf village. Your name wouldn't happen to be Saya Kazami would it?" Tsunade asked as she lifted the girl off the ground and onto her back.**_

_**"How did you know?" The young Saya asked, finding her voice again.**_

_**"Your family is worried sick about you. I'll take you back to them, alright. Next time try to not get lost again." Tsunade said as she walked past the young Chunin towards the direction of the cherry-blossom tree. Before Saya could rememer anymore, her memories started to fade away, leaving her in the darkness, until she finally woke up.**_

_**End of dream:**_

The young Chunin slowly started to stir from her dream as the sunlight hit her face. Saya slowly opened her eyes, before finally rising from the bed, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Her hair flowed down her back straight and silky. The young Chunin turned her purple eyes to the other side of the bed and saw the young girl sound asleep with Kilala curled up next to her. She slightly smiled, before leaving the bed and heading towards the bathroom. Before she could get to the bathroom, there was a soft knock at the door. When she answered the door, Saya was met with kind eyes of the middle-aged woman that ran the inn they were staying at.

"I'm so sorry to disturb you." The woman said with a slight bow and in a low voice. Saya smiled at the kind woman.

"No, it's alright. I was planning on taking a shower when you knocked. So it's alright." Saya said. The woman smiled back at her, before handing Saya some clothes that looked like they would fit her and the girl.

"These clothes use to belong to my children, but they out grew them and you and the young girl look like your about there size. So, I thought I would give them to you. Please take care now." The woman said in a low voice before walking back down the hall. Saya only slightly smiled before going back inside. When she went back in, she noticed that the girl had finally woken up and was staring at her with tired eyes.

"Morning, little one." Saya said with a fake smile as she took a small pink kimono with white flowers designs on it and handed it to the small girl.

"Try this own. The woman downstairs said we could have these. I'll be right back. I'm going to take a shower." Saya said as she took the clothing for herself and walked into the bathroom and shutting the door. The young Chunin turned the shower on to warm and got undressed, throwing her clothing on the floor for the moment and setting the new ones on the counter, before slipping into the shower. After awhile, Saya finally climbed out, grabbing the towel that was hanging up and quickly drying off before grabbing the clothes on the counter and quickly putting them on. But, the young Chunin never noticed that a crescent moon tattoo was also on her back that resembled the tattoos on her shoulders.

The clothes Saya had put on had fit her perfectly. The young Chunin stood in front of the mirror, looking at her reflection with mild interest. Her hair was still down and was still partly wet from the shower. She had the towel over her head as she stood there. Saya wore a gray shirt with sleeves that went to her elbows and also had a hood to it. But, the shirt went above her belly button. She also wore black skinny jean shorts that went to her knees. After a few more moments, Saya finally sighed and left the bathroom, continuing to dry her hair. As she entered the room, she noticed the young girl was playing with Kilala, but she stopped when she noticed Saya coming out of the bathroom.

"Miss..." The young girl began, but Saya cut her off.

"Just call me Saya." She said with a small smile as she watched the girl, sit on the edge of the bed.

"Then, you can all me Hana!" The girl said cheerfully, with a bright smile.

"That's a pretty name." Saya said with a smile directed back at the young girl called Hana. Hana gave a small laugh, before looking back up at Saya with pleading eyes that confused Saya for a moment as she took the towel off her head, once her hair was dry.

"Saya, I was wondering. May I brush your hair?" Hana asked. Saya stood still for a few moments before she finally smiled at the young girl and nodded. Hana searched around the room for a moment, before she finally found a hairbrush that she had kept with her in her pocket and sat back on the bed as Saya sat on the edge of the bed. The brush went through Saya's hair with ease, since her hair was silky and smooth, so there weren't many knots in her hair. Once Hana was done, Saya hot up and took her mother's hair ribbon out of her pocket and tying her hair up in a high pony-tail befor walking out of the room with Hana and Kilala right behind her. They left the inn, saying their good-byes to the kind woman before heading into the town to get something to eat.

Breakfast went by fast for the group and once again they were on their way once more. But, this time Saya decided that she was going to walk for awhile till the young girl tired herself out and when she finally did, it was almost dark and Saya was determined to keep going, until she was also tired. When midnight finally came around, Saya finally grew tired and decided to stop for the night. She built a quick fire and then she slowly drifted off to sleep, into the world of her memories once more.

_**Flashback:**_

_**A young 5 year old Saya was lying on the living room floor of Natsumi's and Arashi's house, where her parents had dropped her and Kotaro off for a mission, since they were friends with them. Kotaro, Natsumi, and Arashi were all in the kitchen making dinner, Saya also wanted to help, but they said that they didn't need anymore help. So, here she was bored out of her mind. After a few more moments, the young girl couldn't take it anymore and quickly stood up and quietly walked towards the front door without a sound. She had to walk past the kitchen, so she made sure that they all had their backs turned to her before heading to the front door. It was already late, but Saya wasn't afraid of the dark, so after she put her shoes on, she quietly slipped out the door without a sound and quickly took off running through the dark streets of the village.**_

_**The young girl had ran all the way to the nearest playground and she made her way over to the swings and sat down, staring up at the stars and the moon. She felt the cool night air on her skin. She loved the outside, but her parents feared for her safetly, and she couldn't blame them after all she had almost been taken when she was 4 and she got lost in the forest. As she watched the moon and stars, she never noticed a familiar figure approach her from behind till she hears their voice.**_

_**"Saya? Is that you?" The figure asked as they continued to walk towards the girl, who had turned to look at the person behind her.**_

_**"Tsunade. Nice to see you again." Saya said as Tsunade sat next to her on the swing.**_

_**"What are you doing out here so late?" Tsunade asked as she started to swing as did Saya.**_

_**"I was bored and thought I would come here to get some fresh air." Saya said. Tsunade smiled slightly and shook her head.**_

_**"You know what. I think your going to give your family a heart attack one of these days." Tsunade said with a small laugh as Saya slightly pouted.**_

_**"It's not my fault. I can't go anywhere without an adult with me or Kotaro. I can't do anything for myself anymore." Saya said, with a slight pout on her face still. They both stopped swinging, when they heard Kotaro calling for Saya and at that moment, Tsunade thought of something.**_

_**"Saya, I got an idea." Tsunade said as she knelt down in front of the young girl.**_

_**"What is it?" Saya asked as she heard her brother getting closer by the sound of his voice.**_

_**"What if, when I'm not on a mission, both you and I can spend the whole day having fun, that way your family won't worry about you." Tsunade suggested and Saya's face instantly lit up at the idea and she quickly nodded.**_

_**"That's sounds like a plan." Saya said with a grin.**_

_**"For a 5 year old, you sure do act like a 12 year old and at the same time a 4 year old as well." Tsunade said as she stood up. Saya only grinned before running off towards her brother's voice, waving to Tsunade as she went.**_

_**End of flashback:**_

When Saya woke up, she woke up to the sunlight in her face. She looked around her and saw that Hana was still fast asleep, so the young Chunin decided to find some food for her as she reached into her pouch and pulled out a food pill and eating it.

'They sure do come in handy.' Saya thought to herself as she caught a rabbit and rebulit the fire and started roasting it. As soon as it was done, the young girl started to stir and once she smelled the food she started to sit up. Saya walked over to her and handed the rabbit to the young girl with a smile.

"Here. You're going to need your strength for the journey ahead." Saya said as Hana took the rabbit and nibbled on it for a second before smiling and devouring the whole thing. As the girl ate, Saya stood back up and stared at the rising sun in the horizon and sighed.

'This is going to be a long journey. I have no clue why I didn't bring any of my things.' Saya thought with a small sigh as she continued to stare a the rising sun.

**A/N: Hello everyone! I keep forgetting to do this, but I do NOT own Naruto or you'll probably she a lot of pairings. Hehehehehe... Please comment and any idea's are welcome.**


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